A veteran Congolese politician who placed third in historic July 30 elections instructed his supporters on Thursday to back President Joseph Kabila in a decisive presidential run-off next month, according to Reuters. Antoine Gizenga, who served briefly as head of state in the 1960s, said his PALU party would back Kabila in the Oct. 29 run-off against vice-president and former rebel chief Jean-Pierre Bemba. In the huge country's first free, open elections for more than 40 years, Kabila won 44.81 percent of first round votes, followed by Bemba with 20.03 percent and Gizenga with 13.06 percent. "PALU (Unified Lumumbist Party) will support the candidacy of Mr Joseph Kabila in the second round of the presidential election. It will give voting instructions to this effect to its supporters," Gizenga, now in his 80s, said in a statement. "As regards the direction and implementation of this programme (of government), PALU expects to occupy and play roles at the highest level," he added. The first round of voting exposed a deep split between Kabila's native Swahili-speaking east and the Lingala-speaking west where the capital, Kinshasa, is located and many people, including Bemba's supporters, distrust the incumbent president. The support of Gizenga, who hails from the western Bandundu province, may therefore help shore up the ethnic credentials of Kabila's platform in addition to its numerical importance. The elections are intended to offer Congo a new start after years of war fuelled by the country's mineral riches, which triggered a humanitarian disaster and killed an estimated 4 million people, largely through hunger and disease. -SPA
