More than half the presidential candidates in Congo's landmark elections this month have called for the suspension of campaigning in a row over the printing of millions of extra ballot papers.
Nineteen candidates said the printing and distribution of an extra five million ballot papers, which are meant to replace those that could be lost or destroyed, put the credibility and transparency of the historic July 30 poll in danger.
"We demand the suspension of campaigning while all the irregularities in the electoral process are dealt with," the candidates said in a statement issued late on Tuesday.
The extra ballot papers should be publicly destroyed as there was no guarantee that they would not be used to rig the election, the candidates added. Democratic Republic of Congo's presidential and parliamentary vote would be the vast country's first free election in over 40 years.
But Congo's electoral commission said there was "no question" of the extra ballots being destroyed as they were needed in case of an accident, such as a fire.
"There is no need to worry, it (the printing of extra ballots) is completely transparent," Independent Electoral Commission spokesman Dieudonne Mirimo said on Wednesday. "This is speculation and politicking," he added. "Each candidate will be able to follow how many ballot papers are sent out and used."
The poll is meant to draw a line under Congo's last war, a 1998-2003 conflict that sucked in six neighbouring countries and has killed four million people, mostly through hunger and disease. Incumbent President Joseph Kabila is widely seen as the favourite but he has 32 challengers in a poll the UN says is the most complicated it has ever organised.
His father Laurent Kabila toppled former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997, ending his 32 years in power, but was assassinated by one of his bodyguards in 2001. Nearly 10,000 candidates have also signed up for the race to fill the 500 seats in Congo's post-war parliament.
The UN has 17,000 peacekeepers in the country and the EU is sending 800 soldiers to try to prevent anyone challenging the elections, on which the international community has spent over $400 million amid hopes they will offer Congo a fresh start.
But violence continues in the mineral-rich east, where thousands of rebels still roam. And some candidates fear that the election will just serve to rubber-stamp Kabila's authority. "We denounce the organisation of a vote aimed at selling the country through a pre-arranged election," the candidates said in their statement.
The popular veteran opposition UDPS party is boycotting the process entirely and has called on its supporters to sabotage campaigning.
But Mirimo said nothing would stop the poll: "We are going to elections on July 30th. If they don't want to, they can wait another five years. After over 40 (years), it's not that long."