Kinshasa — Police used teargas to disperse thousands of placard-carrying demonstrators, who vowed to disrupt general elections, in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, on Tuesday.

"There will be no elections on Sunday. We do not want these biased elections; we want good elections organised," said Serge Mayamba, in charge of youth affairs in the Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social (UDPS) party, headed by Étienne Tshisekedi, who is not participating in the polls.

The estimated 5,000 demonstrators, mostly Tshisekedi's supporters, burnt effigies and posters of presidential candidates along Boulevard Lumumba and sang songs hostile to the incumbent, President Joseph Kabila, who is running as an independent candidate.

Kabila, one of the 33 presidential candidates, has been head of a transitional government for the past three years.

Tshisekedi's supporters have been clamouring for a reorganisation of the elections because, they say, these lack transparency on the number and identity of voters. They point to the National Independent Electoral Commission's recent assertion that nearly 1.5 million voters had disappeared from the poll register.

"The identification of voters has never been clear, even foreigners have been registered and the voters' list has never been published," said Raoul Nsolwa, another demonstrator.

The president of the electoral commission, Apollinaire Malumalu, told reporters that despite the demonstrations the polls would go ahead. At least US $440 million and considerable international effort have gone into the planning of the elections, the first multiparty polls in the country since 1960.

Tuesday's demonstration came two days after Tshisekedi supporters stoned Kabila's motorcade during a campaign rally in Mbuji-Mayi, the main town in Kasai Oriental and a stronghold of Tshisekedi's. Human-rights activists said hundreds of protesters were arrested.

The demonstrators have been bolstered by a call from Roman Catholic bishops for a boycott of the polls if irregularities are not rectified. However, not all the bishops of the National Episcopal Conference that made the call joined the resolution. Bishops from South Kivu Province have called for voters to cast their ballots.

Eighty percent of the country's estimated 60 million people are Christians, of whom 50 percent are Roman Catholic, according to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]