DR CONGO: Congo poll rivals meet for first time since clashes

Congo's President Joseph Kabila met his electoral rival Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba on Wednesday (September 13) for the first time since clashes between their soldiers killed more than 30 people last month. A spokesman for Kabila said he met three of his four vice-presidents, including Bemba, and they discussed the fighting in Kinshasa which threatened to derail Democratic Republic of Congo's first free elections in more than 40 years. Kabila won the presidential first round on July 30 with 45 percent of the vote, but fighting erupted on Aug. 20 when electoral authorities announced he would face a second round run-off against second-placed Bemba, who won 20 percent. The violence threatened to upset the runoff due on Oct. 29, meant to draw a line under a 1998-2003 war which killed more than 4 million people, mainly through hunger and disease. But the election faced a fresh challenge on Wednesday when Congo's Supreme Court notified the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) the Oct. 29 date was unconstitutional. The Court ruled the date planned would break a constitutional clause which stipulated a runoff must take place within 15 days of the first round result being announced by the Supreme Court. The tribunal, however, has yet to officially confirm the preliminary results announced in August by the CEI. Asked if the commission would change the election date, CEI spokesman Dieudonne Mirimo said: "We are still waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on our own appeal ... to declare force majeure because of the impossibility of organising elections in 15 days." The electoral commission faced enormous logistical challenges in organising the first round elections for more than 25 million registered voters in a country the size of Western Europe, with only around 300 miles (480 km) of paved roads. At the presidential palace, a Reuters witness saw Kabila and Bemba shake hands warmly before their meetings, which lasted into the night. A spokesman for Bemba said he would discuss with Kabila a proposal by a group of Kinshasa-based foreign diplomats to confine to barracks all soldiers not helping U.N forces with peacekeeping duties in Congo. The meeting came after a diplomatic drive this week by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and South African President Thabo Mbeki to urge the candidates to return to the business of government and to cut back their private armies and confine them to barracks.

ITN Source | September 15, 2006

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