World leaders urged the people of Congo on Saturday to shun violence and embrace democracy by voting peacefully in the country's first free multi-party elections in 40 years this weekend.
The international community has thrown its weight behind Sunday's polls in the Democratic Republic of Congo, stumping up the $460 million needed to hold them and deploying the largest United Nations peacekeeping operation on the planet.
The presidential and parliamentary elections are the culmination of a peace process that followed a devastating 1998-2003 war in the vast, mineral-rich former Belgian colony. Both the Congolese and their foreign backers hope the vote can give the nation a fresh start.
Despite the three-year-old peace, rebel and militia groups have continued to kill and loot in the east and more than 1,200 Congolese still die every day from violence, hunger and disease.
On the eve of the landmark elections, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, South African President Thabo Mbeki and the US government joined in calling for a peaceful vote. "Violence must be avoided," Annan said in comments broadcast by UN radio in the Congo. "I ask political leaders to accept the results ... In elections ... there are winners and losers. There are rules of the game and I ask the Congolese to accept them," he said.
Fears that violence could disrupt the polls increased over the last week as political street protests, by both supporters of candidates and critics of the elections, have shaken the riverside capital Kinshasa. At least six people were killed.
President Joseph Kabila, who took over the presidency after his father Laurent was assassinated in 2001, is widely viewed as favourite to win the elections in a field of 32 contenders. His challengers include former rebel leaders who once fought against him. If no one candidate gains more than 50 percent of the vote in Sunday's first round, a deciding second round will be held at the end of October between the two frontrunners.
International leaders view the polls as a key test of democracy in Africa. They portray Congo, located at the heart of the continent and a treasure chest of cobalt, copper, gold and diamonds, as a lynchpin of regional stability.
South Africa's Mbeki, who has played an important role in helping to steer Congo towards elections, described the vote as "a decisive moment in the modern history of the DRC and Africa".
It was a "a major step on the road to reconciliation, reconstruction and development," he said in a statement. The United States, which contributes $270 million to the $1.1 billion annual UN peacekeeping bill for the Congo, said it would also closely follow Sunday's elections. "We expect the elections to be fair, free and transparent. That's what we've all worked for," US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer told reporters in Kinshasa. Frazer will be observing the Congolese elections along with a total of more than 1,200 international monitors.
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