The Congolese constitutional referendum vote will be postponed from November 28 to December 18, as referred in a radio broadcast by the chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI), Father Apollinaire Malu Malu, who did not hide his optimism in view of the appointment

Hundreds of Congolese who recently returned from Rwanda to the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to register as voters have been disqualified because they hold dual citizenship, electoral officials said.

The army of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will on 30 September begin using force to expell all foreign rebel fighters in the country, a spokesman for President Joseph Kabila said on Thursday.

The UN Security Council on Monday authorised the temporary deployment of additional personnel and equipment to the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for the country's general elections due in 2006.

Unidentified militiamen shot dead an electoral official on Monday when they attacked a voter registration centre in Fataki, a town in the northeastern district of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Independent Electoral Commission Chairman Apollinaire Malu Malu said.

Voter registration was extended for an additional week on Sunday in the Democratic Republic of Congo provinces of Orientale and Bas-Congo due to transport and security difficulties, the chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, Appollinaire Malu Malu, said.

Some 1,000 refugees in camps in Tanzania returned to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) late in July in order to register to vote in the 2006 general elections, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

The Independent Electoral Commission of the Democratic Republic of Congo has said 2.9 million people in Kinshasa, the capital, had signed up to vote in the 2006 elections by the time registration centres closed on Sunday.

Registration of voters started on Monday in two provinces outside Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as preparations continued for general elections scheduled for 2006, officials said.

Over 2.5-million citizens have registered to vote since the start of the census operations on June 20, as referred by the Independent Electoral Commission of Kinshasa. Also specifying that the aim is to register all voters of the capital, 3.5-million people on a population of 6,8-m, by the beginning of August.