32 candidates register for DRC presidential poll

KINSHASA – Thirty-two candidates have been provisionally registered to run in the presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) said.

Current President Joseph Kabila is one of the five independent candidates for the election, the date for which the CEI is expected to announce on April 19. Forty-one people who had registered were disqualified, almost all for failing to come up with the US$50 000 non-refundable fee.Three vice presidents are also running for the post: Azarias Ruberwa, head of a former rebel group supported by Rwanda; Jean-Pierre Bemba, head of a former Ugandan-backed rebel group; and Arthur Zahidi Ngoma, head of an opposition party.Nzangan Mobutu, the son of Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, is also running.Meanwhile more than 800 UN peacekeepers winding down their mission in Burundi will be redeployed to the DRC next month to assist with security as the DRC prepares for elections, the United Nations Operation in Burundi (ONUB) said yesterday.”A part of the ONUB contingent is going to be redeployed to the UN Mission in the DRC as called for in UN Security Council resolution 1650 of December 2005,” ONUB spokesman Ahmadou Ousmane told reporters.”The redeployment is set for May,” he said.ONUB military spokesman Francis Musumbu told AFP that 720 Pakistani troops, 50 military observers and a Jordanian medical team would be involved in the move from Burundi to the neighbouring DRC.The Pakistani battalion is to be deployed in DRC’s central Katanga province with the observers stationed in various other parts of the country, he said.- Nampa-AFPForty-one people who had registered were disqualified, almost all for failing to come up with the US$50 000 non-refundable fee.Three vice presidents are also running for the post: Azarias Ruberwa, head of a former rebel group supported by Rwanda; Jean-Pierre Bemba, head of a former Ugandan-backed rebel group; and Arthur Zahidi Ngoma, head of an opposition party.Nzangan Mobutu, the son of Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, is also running.Meanwhile more than 800 UN peacekeepers winding down their mission in Burundi will be redeployed to the DRC next month to assist with security as the DRC prepares for elections, the United Nations Operation in Burundi (ONUB) said yesterday.”A part of the ONUB contingent is going to be redeployed to the UN Mission in the DRC as called for in UN Security Council resolution 1650 of December 2005,” ONUB spokesman Ahmadou Ousmane told reporters.”The redeployment is set for May,” he said.ONUB military spokesman Francis Musumbu told AFP that 720 Pakistani troops, 50 military observers and a Jordanian medical team would be involved in the move from Burundi to the neighbouring DRC.The Pakistani battalion is to be deployed in DRC’s central Katanga province with the observers stationed in various other parts of the country, he said.- Nampa-AFP