Congo Opens 1st Campaign Since 1960s

By EDDY ISANGO
The Associated Press

KINSHASA, Congo —

Congo launched its first election campaign in four decades Friday, with 33 candidates seeking the presidency of the giant African country as it seeks normalcy after a brutal civil war.

Most of the capital's residents kept off the streets and riot police fired in the air to chase away would-be demonstrators.

The July 30 ballot will elect a government to take over from a transitional administration put together after a 1998-2003 civil war that drew armies from six countries into a resource-rich central African nation the size of western Europe.

Aid groups estimate violence has killed some 4 million Congolese since 1998, mostly from strife-caused disease or hunger. Suffering from extreme privation, an estimated 1,000 Congolese still die needless deaths daily, making Congo one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Fearing political clashes, the governor of the province that includes the nation's capital, Kinshasa, announced on state radio late Thursday that all marches and demonstrations were banned in the city.

But groups of young men still gathered in otherwise deserted streets Friday, seeking to voice support for their candidates. Riot police swinging clubs and firing weapons into the sky scattered the crowds. Most shops, banks and schools stayed closed.

The launch of campaigning coincided with the day marking Congo's independence from Belgium in 1960 _ a potentially combustible mix of history and politics in a country without a tradition of peaceful politics.

Logistical and political problems led to repeated delays in elections originally planned for 2005, Leading opponents to President Joseph Kabila argued his national unity government was now illegitimate because its mandate expired Friday, but the international community disagreed.

The country's 62 million people hope a democratically elected leadership can bring long-term peace to Congo after decades of corrupt rule and the war whose aftershocks continue to kill.

The presidential race has 33 candidates and 9,000 people are running for the 600-plus seats in the National Assembly and Senate.

Kabila is a favorite in the presidential field, but few believe he can win an outright majority in the first round. A runoff between the two top vote-getters will be held within weeks of the initial ballot if the first-round does not yield a clear winner.

Some 17,500 U.N. peacekeepers, the United Nations' largest military operation, are overseeing the vote. Hundreds of European Union soldiers are expected to arrive in the coming weeks to beef up security.

Eastern Congo, where U.N. peacekeepers and Congolese troops are battling militants, remains restive.