Opposition disputes Congo Republic results

BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of the Congo, July 16 (UPI) -- Opposition parties and a human rights group Thursday disputed election results that returned Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesso to power.

Sassou-Nguesso, who has been in and out of power since a 1979 coup in Africa's fifth biggest oil producer, won 78.6 percent of the vote, the country's Electoral Commission said.

Independent candidate Joseph Kignoumbi Kia Mboungou came in a distant second with 7.46 percent of the ballot.

Turnout Sunday was more than 66 percent, Interior Minister Raymond Mboulou said but some Sassou-Nguesso opponents said only about 10 percent of voters cast ballots.

Six of 12 challengers had called for a boycott of the polls, saying they were rigged -- a charge Sassou-Nguesso denied.

Monitors from the 53-country African Union and the 10-nation Economic Community of Central African States said the election was clean.

The BBC said money was handed out at a polling station to people who later said they had been asked to vote for Sassou-Nguesso. Other voters said hired hands had confiscated ballot boxes in some districts.

About 2,000 opposition supporters protested the election results in Brazzaville but were dispersed by riot police firing tear gas, the BBC reported.

Police also confiscated and destroyed a BBC correspondent's recording equipment and that of a French TV crew, the BBC said.