DRC election talks suspended
2006-07-01 21:20
Kinshasa - Multi-party talks to ensure a smooth run-up to the Democratic Republic of Congo's elections next month failed to resume on Saturday, after being shunned by more than half of the 33 presidential candidates when they opened on Friday.
"The discussions have been suspended in order to find a consensus among all the political families and the international community," said an aide to vice president Arthur Zahidi Ngoma. "A date for their resumption has not been fixed."
Friday's inaugural meeting was attended by three of the four vice presidents in the transitional government, all of whom are seeking the presidency, and the head of the independent electoral commission.
But it was boycotted by representatives of President Joseph Kabila, who said it had been convened illegally and without prior consensus.
The country's first democratic presidential and parliamentary elections in 45 years, to be held on July 30, are seen as a key step in bringing lasting peace to the vast, war-scarred nation.
Voters will decide the first round of the presidential contest and choose the members of the country's parliament, ending three years of political transition after a five year war.
'We are losing time'
The opening discussions on Friday focused on the issue of transparency, said Francois Lumumba, son of the first independent DRC leader Patrice Lumumba.
The Saturday discussions had been expected to concentrate on security arrangements during voting, access by contenders to the media during the campaign and on the period after June 30, the originally officially-designated end to the transition period.
The secretary general of the Congolese Rally for Democracy-National Movement, Jean-Louis Kyaviro, said the meetings might never resume.
"The people who came had very different agendas," he said. "We are losing time in fruitless discussions instead of campaigning - even if they do resume we will not be there."
Kabila is favoured to come out on top in the first round of the presidential vote.
Besides the country's vice presidents, his other main opponents are Mzanga Mobutu, son of the late dictator of what was then Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko, and former central bank governor Pierre Pay Pay.