Church & UN Call for Free Congo Elections to Stabilise Africa

|PIC1|Leading African Christians have called for a boycott of Sunday’s elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo if the controversial issue of vote-rigging is not addressed.

The Roman Catholic Church in the African country has been alarmed at the confusion over the number of registered voters, and has said that the situation could easily be exploited and the elections could be rigged as the nation goes to the polls on Sunday.

A statement from the Church was read out across churches in Kinshasa, and last Friday Catholic bishops declared that they would not recognise the poll result unless their concerns were addressed.

The Catholic Church holds a large sway in Congo, with more than half of the population being followers of the Catholic faith.

Meanwhile, the United Nations' special envoy, William Swing, has said preparations for the elections were going well, although much still needed to be done.

Swing told that the UN was vigilant but not overly anxious about the security situation, and he welcomed the fact that militias in the east had not disrupted the election process, according to the BBC.

DR Congo is building up to its first-ever free presidential election, following a devastating civil war which officially came to an end in 2003. However, current figures reveal that more than 1,000 people a day are still dying as a direct or indirect consequence of the conflict.

|AD|UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called the election a "logistical nightmare" and already many problems have been identified prior to the start of the elections.

Catholic leaders are arguing that the serving President, Joesph Kabila, has used state resources to back his campaign, and is also rumoured to have used intimidation to sway voters his way.

Another vital issue that remains a concern is that all the mainstream candidates are former warlords who caused many of the country's problems in the first place, tells the BBC.

Swing believes that if efforts could be finalised to produce a successful and free election then the stability brought would benefit not just DR Congo but the whole of Africa.

"This is arguably the only sub-region in Africa that has always lacked any centre of political stability and because of the size of this country, with nine neighbours, it is the only country that can give it that stability," he said according to the BBC.

"If the crisis in the Congo can be successfully resolved, Congo can change the face of Africa. Very few other crises can."