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Cong olese voted Sunday in the first free elections in 40 years as the central African country rebuilds itself after a civil war in which more than 4 million people died.

The first of 25 million registered voters began casting their ballots at 6 a.m. local time at 12 000 polling centres in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sylvie van den Wildenberg, a United Nations spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview from the village of Walungu, near the eastern town of Bukavu.

The election may open the way for more investment in a nation as big as Western Europe that is rich in copper, cobalt, uranium and other minerals, and poor in infrastructure such as paved roads and phone services.

“This is a great event for us,” Celestin Embimen, a 43-year-old university lecturer, said in an interview outside a polling station in the capital, Kinshasa, after voting for the first time in his life. “It's very important for this country because life here is very difficult.”

The UN says 1 200 people die in the country every day from causes related to conflict, including disease and hunger. Almost 2 million have been forced from their homes by warfare.

Security was tight following a series of clashes last week between supporters of President Joseph Kabila, who as the best-known candidate is favoured to win a five-year term in the elections, and his chief rivals.

“The violence and intimidation raise questions about how free and fair the elections will be in hotly contested areas of Congo,” Alison Des Forges, senior adviser to the Africa division of Washington-based Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “The police and United Nations peacekeepers must keep order or people will be afraid to vote.”

Nearly 75 000 Congolese police and 17 000 UN peacekeepers are on standby to deal with any outbreaks of violence. About 1 200 international observers from the European Union, African Union and groups such as the South African Parliamentary Union, have spread out across the nation of 60 million.

Appollinare Malu-Malu, chairman of Congo's Independent Electoral Commission, said the only significant disturbance that had been reported so far was the destruction of 11 voting stations in two central provinces.

Seven polling stations were destroyed by fire in Mweka, in the central Kasai Occidental province, and another four were burned to the ground in Mwene-Ditu, in Kasai Oriental province, Malu-Malu told a press conference in Kinshasa on Sunday.

The two provinces are the main support base of Etienne Tshisekedi's Union for Democracy and Social Progress, which is boycotting the poll.

Other minor technical problems, such as voters using pencils instead of pens and voting stations opening late, had also been reported, Malu-Malu said.

“The polls are very orderly,” Jendayi Frazer, US assistant secretary of state for Africa, said in an interview.

“The process is going on in a spirit of dignity and calm.”

Congolese voters have more than 33 presidential aspirants and 9 000 candidates for the 500-seat parliament to choose from. The candidates are listed on five pages of ballot sheets that are about 18 inches wide and 24 inches long.

Kabila, the 34-year-old president of the transitional government that has ruled the nation since 2001, and his People's Party for Reconstruction and Development are likely to win the election, according to the Eurasia Group, a New York-based firm that analyzes political risk for businesses. “This is the most important day in the history of the country since independence,” Kabila said after casting his vote at a polling station in Kinshasa. Congo, formerly know as Zaire, gained independence from Belgium in 1960.

“With elections we hope peace and stability will come to Congo, and with peace and stability, development will come to our country,” he said.

Companies including Celtel, the Hoofddorp, Netherlands-based mobile-phone operator with operations in 13 African nations; Phoenix-based Phelps Dodge, the world's third-biggest copper producer; and New York-based Citigroup Inc., the world's biggest bank by market value, say the election may lead to a surge development in the mineral-rich country.

Kabila's principal rivals in the election are vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former Ugandan-backed rebel leader, and Azarias Ruberwa, a former Rwandan-backed rebel. Bemba said he was confident of winning the poll.

“According to the information I am receiving from all parts of the country's interior, everything is going very well,” Bemba said after voting in Kinshasa. “I am confident we could surprise.”

Election workers will start hand-counting the ballots as soon as the polls close at 5 p.m. local time, although the nation's electoral commission said anyone waiting in line will be able to vote.

Results aren't expected to become official until September, according to the UN's Integrated Regional Information Networks. Early returns may show Kabila trailing because he is more popular in the remote eastern part of the nation, while Bemba's popularity is greatest in Kinshasa.

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