250,000 Voters Registered In DR Of Congo's Capital

Some 250,000 Voters Registered In Dr Of Congo's Capital In 10 Days – UN Mission

New York, Jul 1 2005

More than 250,000 people have registered to vote in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), over the past week and a half, showing their support for the upcoming elections.

The UN has 150 electoral personnel helping to organize the elections, United Nations spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said at UN Headquarters today.

He noted that the rapid registration showed support for the elections, even though several incidents had marked the 45th anniversary of DRC's independence from Belgium.

The elections, the country's first in four decades, after years of civil war, were to have been held two years after the inauguration of the Transitional Government, which would have been by June 2005. But delays occurred in connection with the new constitution, new electoral law and the technical preparations.

In Kinshasa, the spokeswoman for the UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC), Rachel Eklou-Assogbavi, called on the Congolese to show their sense of responsibility in dealing with the National Parliament's decision to extend the political transitional period by six months until the end of the year by avoiding any excesses.

The military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Thierry Provendier, added that MONUC had brought two reconnaissance helicopters to Kinshasa to keep the mission's leadership informed of any developments and to serve as impartial witnesses in case of incident at any eventual protests.

ENDS

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