DRC: Voter registration starts in provinces outside capital

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. The two provinces are Oriental in the northeast and Bas Congo in the west. "So far 10 out of 21 registration centres [in Bunia] are operational, and we are planning to open more," Apollinaire Malu Malu, president of the Independent Electoral Commission, told IRIN on Tuesday from Bunia.