Run-off elections...

Unlike 4 weeks ago with the first round of elections, there was very little noise on our street when I woke up this morning. It seemed like your usual Saturday morning, besides the fact that we weren’t allowed off of our compound until noon. I peeked out of the gate at 10 am and saw a fairly short line outside of the polling station up the street. It was very calm. I actually ended up staying on the compound all afternoon. And after 5pm we were supposed to stay on the compound again anyway.

Since it had been quiet all day, I was surprised to hear a lot of commotion on our road at around 430 pm. I went to the front gate (along with a few others) to try to find out what was going on. We just saw a lot of people through the little peeking slot by the gate. We asked the guard what was going on; he was very vague. We climbed up onto the roof to take a look. We saw a lot of people outside the polling station (just up the road) and about 6-8 armed soldiers in the crowd. Pretty soon the army guys drove off, which seemed to quiet things down a little. Only some police men and military police were left behind; they were addressing the crowd. After about 10 minutes they also left the scene in a jeep and the people seemed content again.

The rumor is that someone tried to bribe someone into switching one of the ballot boxes. Of course, the neighborhood was not happy to find that out and the commotion began. I guess now they are just hanging around outside of the polling station to keep an eye on things. Who knows what really happened. No one got hurt. It was nothing major. Just a group of people that got a bit upset about something.

Hopefully the voting in the rest of the country remained peaceful. I have not heard of any major disruption. I'll check out the news, but it's hard to know exactly whats true and whats speculation/rumor...

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L08417092.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6983085.stm