The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will hold presidential
and parliamentary elections on June 18, the country's independent
electoral commission announced late on Thursday.
The announcement came just two hours after President Joseph
Kabila promulgated the electoral law.
"The first round of the presidential election and the
legislative elections (just one round) will take place on June
18,2006," commission president Apollinaire Malu Malu told a news
conference.
Under the electoral law, the DRC will subsequently launch
provincial, municipal and local elections, the first democratic
polls to be held in the country in more than four decades.
According to the schedule set by the electoral commission,
presidential and parliamentary candidates should submit their
application forms before March 23. The results of the first round
of presidential elections will be published on July 14.
Earlier on Thursday, Interior Minister Mbemba Fundu said 270
parties in the country had registered in the elections.
The DRC, formerly Zaire, is rich in natural resources. But it is
suffering from the aftermath of the 1998-2003 civil war which left
nearly 4 million people dead.
Under the country's transitional constitution, the DRC should
complete its first democratic general elections in 45 years by June
30.
(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2006)
