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26 juillet 2006

Elections in Congo

Let me share this news with you. Just shows how making Democratic Republic of Congo really democratic is not an easy affair. From Reuters.

"Gunmen have killed up to seven people at an election rally in eastern Congo in an attack which revived fears that violence could disrupt the country's historic polls later this month, officials said on Tuesday.

The unidentified gunmen opened fire on the rally on Monday afternoon near Rutshuru in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province, where marauding bands of rebels and militias still terrorise the civilian population.

The former Belgian colony holds its first free multiparty polls in four decades on July 30, but violence still grips many parts of the vast central African country despite the presence of the world's biggest United Nations peacekeeping force.

The candidate who had staged the rally that was attacked fled to Uganda in fear of his life and other local candidates said they were asking the U.N. for protection.

Tensions were also running high in the capital Kinshasa, where police fired tear gas on Tuesday at several hundred demonstrators who were protesting at what they called irregularities in the electoral process.

The protesters tore down election posters and billboards, and put burning tyres across streets, witnesses said.

Officials said up to seven people were killed and several more wounded in Monday's unexplained shootings at the rally staged at Mugogo, 15 km (9 miles) east of Rutshuru, by independent parliamentary candidate Jean-Luc Mutokambale.

It was the worst campaign-related violence reported so far in the run-up to the July 30 polls in which President Jospeh Kabila -- who took power after his father was assassinated in 2001 - is standing against 32 other contenders.

"He (Mutokambale) was holding his meeting in the market when people opened fire on them. Seven people were killed and several others were injured. The candidate has had to flee to Uganda," said Sekimonyo wa Magango, a rival candidate in Rutshuru.

"Anything can happen out here," he told Reuters.

The polls are intended to usher in a new era of stability after a 1998-2003 war which sucked in six neighbouring states and killed around 4 million people through violence, hunger and disease in one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.

"SITUATION PRECARIOUS"

A U.N. spokeswoman in North Kivu, Jacqueline Chenard, said a U.N. team had been sent to investigate the Mugogo attack.

"We have also heard that seven people were killed and about five were injured. Many candidates in these areas cannot carry out their campaigns freely. The situation is precarious just two weeks before the elections," she said.

Some presidential and parliamentary candidates have been calling for a suspension of the campaign over fears that election authorities may rig the vote. They have staged protests in Kinshasa which have ended in clashes with police.

Tuesday's protesters included members of the opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress Party (UDPS) led by Etienne Tshisekedi who has called for a boycott of the polls.

The anti-election campaigners complain that many more election ballots have been printed than are actually needed and say these could be used to commit fraud. The U.N. and foreign governments overseeing the polls, which at a cost of $400 million will be one of the most expensive ever supervised by the world body, have accused Kabila's government of trying to intimidate opponents and media critics.

But Kabila's foes say the international community is clearly backing the incumbent president and accuse him of abusing his control over state media and the security services to gain an unfair advantage over other contenders."

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