Aljazeera.Net | Congo president announces candidacy
"Joseph Kabila, the president of Congo, has announced his candidacy for the country's landmark president election.
He joined the race as thousands of opposition party supporters marched to UN peacekeeping headquarters to demand renewed registration so they can vote.
'I'm joining the race as the candidate of the people,' said Kabila, the 34-year-old leader of Congo's postwar national-unity government, which is arranging the first presidential elections in four decades.
Supporters of opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi have repeatedly raised the registration issue in recent weeks as Kofi Annan, the UN secretry-general, visits their country.
Annan, who was not present at UN headquarters during the march, said later that the vote shouldn't be delayed. 'The people of Congo have had enough. They're tired of waiting.'
Tshisekedi, a veteran Congo opposition leader, called on his supporters last year to boycott registration for 18 June elections arranged by Kabila's transitional administration.
Tshisekedi later reversed himself, saying he would run. Now he is demanding election centres across the vast, war-ruined nations re-open to register his supporters.
EU Deployment
Later on Wednesday, The European Union agreed in principle to a German-led military mission of up to 1450 troops that will help protect the Congolese elections, EU diplomats said.
The deployment would take place two to three weeks before the elections and troops would stay for about four months, the official added. "
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2 comments:
Do you know if (or when) President Kabila resigned his commission in the military? Doesn't the new constitutino forbid members of the police and military from holding political office UNLESS they resign their commission first?
That has got to be the most controversial topic in Congolese politics, right now... There is no publicize proof that he did resign or retire from the military, but his spokesperson says he has de facto retired from the military... My foot!
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