Opposition group rejects election plan

The government of President Laurent-Desire Kabila has set 10 May as the date for parliamentary elections in the DRC, news agencies reported on Sunday. AP quoted Interior Minister Gaetan Kakudji as saying a five-member government office would organise the vote for a 300-seat transitional parliament in government-held areas. However, major opposition parties have said they will not take part. "The Kabila government is trying to
bypass the Lusaka peace accord," Raphael Kashala, an official in the Brussels office of the opposition Union pour la democratie et le progres social (UDPS), told IRIN on Monday. "It is not reasonable to talk about parliamentary elections in a divided country," he said. The priority should be on stopping hostilities and organising inter-Congolese negotiations leading to a new political order, as called for in the Lusaka
accord, Kashala added.

Meanwhile, Kashala said that UDPS leader Etienne Tshisekedi was now in Brussels and would be travelling on to other European countries, Canada and the US in the coming weeks. He planned to return to the DRC once "structures were in place" for the inter-Congolese negotiations, he said.