DRC opposition warns of chaos

2006-06-18 22:28

Kinshasa - The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) risks descending into "indescribable chaos" if its landmark elections next month are "botched", an opposition party leader warned on Sunday.

"We are right to fear that the elections, organised in haste, will plunge the country into indescribable chaos, because (the elections may be) botched," Francois Lumumba of the Congolese National Lumumba Movement (MNC-L), told AFP.

"Haste favours cheating and undoubtedly leads to botched elections that benefit only those in power," said the opposition MNC-L leader, who is also the son of the DRC's first post-independence prime minister Patrice Lumumba.

"The greater part of the (DRC) political class wants dialogue before the July 30 elections to clean up the polluted political climate and agree on a realistic electoral calendar."

Security

He cited what he regarded as technical weaknesses in the electoral process, saying the 30 000 to 40 000 security personnel trained to guard the country's estimated 53 000 voting stations were not enough.

"The technical appearance of the electoral process currently underway does not reassure us," Lumumba said.

"It is a real problem which we must not avoid. To reassure everybody, the political class needs to confer in impartiality and truth."

A European force of about 2 000 troops is to join an existing 16 ';000-strong United Nations peacekeeping contingent to maintain security in the polls.

The European Union is also to send 250 election observers.

Voting on July 30 will be the first stage of the DRC's first democratic elections - president, local, and legislative polls - since independence from Belgium in 1961.

A second round of voting is due later in the year.

- AFP