Polling stations opened early Sunday for the second round of legislative elections in Congo, but tens of thousands of people displaced by fighting were not expected to vote.
Most polling stations opened on time, although voting got off to a slow start in the capital Brazzaville.
Security was stepped up in the capital’s Mfilou district, where heavy fighting occurred on June 14 between government troops and so-called ”Ninja” militiamen.
Most Mfilou residents have not returned home since the fighting.
Even before the fighting, during the first round of the vote on May 26, the turnout was very low in Mfilou, with an abstention rate of 76%.
Supporters of President Denis Sassou Nguesso hope to build on a strong lead they scored in the first round to elect deputies to a new 137-seat single-chamber parliament that will replace a provisional council set up in 1998 after he seized power for a second time.
The parliamentary elections — the first in more than a decade — are aimed at laying to rest years of conflict and mending the devastated economy and society of oil-rich Congo.
Nearly 50 000 people have been displaced since fighting flared up in the Pool region, to the south and west of the capital.
Voting is scheduled to end at 6pm (1700 GMT).
– Sapa-AFP