VOA标准英语2009年-Voter Turnout Low in Republic of Congo
时间：2019-01-14 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2009年(七月)
On Sunday, the Republic of Congo held its second presidential election since the civil war that erupted in 1997, but voter turnout appeared low after an opposition 1 boycott 2.
Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesso (file photo)
Incumbent 3 president Denis Sassou-Nguesso faced 12 challengers in his run for a second seven-year term on Sunday, a race many expect him to win.
Despite concerns the election could unleash 4 a new round of conflict and civil unrest in the country, very few incidents of violence were reported. Yet many polling places appeared empty, after four opposition candidates called for a boycott in a vote they said was already tainted 5.
Opposition candidates said the boycott was well-respected, and a lot of registered voters did not go to the polls.
Opposition candidates had called for election day to be moved because of irregularities in voter lists. They pointed 6 to electoral lists they said included the names of dead people, fictitious 7 voters, minors 8, and foreigners.
They had also demanded the replacement 9 of the National Elections Organization Committee, the same group that conducted the country's 2007 parliamentary elections and 2008 local elections, which were denounced for fraud by observers from the African Union.
Mr. Sasso-Nguesso has been president all but five years in the past three decades.
He first took power in a 1979 coup 10 before losing in a multi-party election in 1992. He seized power again in 1997 and won a landslide 11 victory in the 2002 presidential elections from which key rivals were either banned or withdrew.
There were 13 candidates on Sunday's ballot 12. Four others had been disqualified by the Constitutional Court in June, including main opposition candidate, Ange Edouard Poungui, who said the decision was politically motivated.
Previous elections have opened the door to violence and instability in the Republic of Congo. Bracing 13 for Sunday's vote, some Congolese were setting money aside or leaving the capital Brazzaville altogether, where opposition candidates had organized protests.
In 1993, disputed parliamentary elections spiraled into bloody 14, ethnic-based fighting between pro-government forces and the opposition. Tensions flared 15 up again in 1997, also an election year, eventually exploding into a full-scale civil war that killed thousands and displaced about a quarter of the population.
The former French colony is one of sub-Saharan Africa's main oil producers, though most of its four million people live in poverty.
Results of Sunday's election are expected in the coming days or weeks.
- The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
- The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。
- We put the production under a boycott.我们联合抵制该商品。
- The boycott lasts a year until the Victoria board permitsreturn.这个抗争持续了一年直到维多利亚教育局妥协为止。
- He defeated the incumbent governor by a large plurality.他以压倒多数票击败了现任州长。
- It is incumbent upon you to warn them.你有责任警告他们。
- They hope to create allies to unleash against diseases,pests,and invasive species.他们希望创造出一些新群体来对付疾病、害虫和一些有侵害性的物种。
- Changing water levels now at times unleash a miasma of disease from exposed sewage.如今，大坝不时地改变水位，从暴露的污水释放出了疾病瘴气。
- The administration was tainted with scandal. 丑闻使得政府声名狼藉。
- He was considered tainted by association with the corrupt regime. 他因与腐败政府有牵连而名誉受损。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
- She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。
- She invented a fictitious boyfriend to put him off.她虚构出一个男朋友来拒绝他。
- The story my mother told me when I was young is fictitious.小时候妈妈对我讲的那个故事是虚构的。
- The law forbids shops to sell alcohol to minors. 法律禁止商店向未成年者出售含酒精的饮料。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- He had three minors this semester. 这学期他有三门副修科目。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
- They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。
- The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
- That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。
- Our candidate is predicated to win by a landslide.我们的候选人被预言将以绝对优势取胜。
- An electoral landslide put the Labour Party into power in 1945.1945年工党以压倒多数的胜利当选执政。
- The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
- The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。
- The country is bracing itself for the threatened enemy invasion. 这个国家正准备奋起抵抗敌人的入侵威胁。
- The atmosphere in the new government was bracing. 新政府的气氛是令人振奋的。