The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is due to hold its first democratic presidential and legislative elections on Sunday after 46 years of independence.

Following several days of high-spirited drumming-up campaigns in the capital of Kinshasa, the showdown of 33 presidential candidates and 9,700 legislative candidates vying for 500 seats in the senate is going to take place at nearly 50,000 polling stations across the country from 6:00 a.m. local time (0500 GMT).

A total of 25.7 million voters will cast their ballots at 49, 746 polling stations across the country, of which 8,518 stations are in Kinshasa, said Dieudonne Mirimo Mulongo, spokesman for DRC's Independent Electoral Commission, to Xinhua on Friday.

That means one polling station is shared by 370 voters in Kinshasa and by 500 to 600 voters outside the capital, said Mulongo.

The DRC, with an area of 2.34 million square km and an estimated population of 54.8 million, is the third largest country in Africa. Though rich in natural resources, the former Belgian colony remains one of the poorest countries in the world due to continuous war and instability, especially in the east of the country.

To assist the DRC in its elections, the international community has donated 422 million U.S. dollars, with the European Union being the biggest contributor, said Mulongo, adding that more than 1,700 international observers have arrived in the country to monitor the voting and counting process to ensure transparency.

It is reported that the election observers are from the African Union, the Southern African Development Community, the Economic Community of Central African States, the Carter Center, the Organization Internationale de la Francophonie, South Africa, the United States, Japan, and the European Union.

The counting process will begin at polling stations once voting comes to an end at about 5:00 p.m. (16:00 GMT), and the results will be available in about three weeks, according to Mulongo.

On Friday, incumbent President Joseph Kabila made his last pre- poll campaign speech to a large gathering of supporters in Kinshasa. Just a day before, Kabila's strongest contestant Deputy President Jean-Pierre Bemba launched a similar campaign in the capital, which was participated by hundreds of thousands people and later turned violent, killing at least three.

Thirty-three candidates are going to compete in the first free presidential election of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since the country declared independence 46 years ago.

The following is a brief introduction to the main candidates who capture more attention than the others:

-- JOSEPH KABILA: 35, incumbent president and head of the DRC transitional government, born in Hewa Bora II, South Kivu Province in the east of the country.

He completed elementary and secondary education in Tanzania, and received bachelor's degree in international studies and diplomacy from Washington International University. He became president of the DRC on January 26, 2001, following the assassination of his father, Laurent-Desire Kabila.

Before coming into political spotlight, Kabila was a guerrilla commander in Laurent Kabila's Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (AFDL), which he joined in 1996. The younger Kabila was made the movement's operations commander in the First Congo War, which toppled Mobutu Sese Seko's government in 1997.

He was appointed deputy chairman of the joint chiefs of staff of the armed forces in 1998.

Joseph Kabila is running as an independent, despite being the founder and having the support of the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD).

Kabila was married on June 17, 2006 to Olive Lembe Disita, with whom he has a six-year-old girl.

-- JEAN-PIERRE BEMBA: 44, vice president in charge of finance in the transitional government, one of Joseph Kabila's strongest presidential competitor and leader of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), a political party turned from a rebel group.

Bemba is holder of master's degree in commerce and consular science from ICHEC/Brussels.

Son of a prominent businessman from northwestern Equateur Province, he was also a businessman before engaging in politics. And he still owns Canal Congo TV, Canal Kin TV and Radio Liberte.

Bemba made his debut in politics as financial adviser to president Mobutu Seso Seko, who was toppled by Laurent Kabila in 1997. Bemba set up MLC in 1998 with extensive Ugandan backing shortly after the outbreak of the civil war. As MLC leader, he controlled practically the entire north of the country during the rebellion.

-- AZARIAS RUBERWA MANYWA: 42, vice president in charge of defense and security in the transitional government, candidate and leader of the Congolese Rally for Democracy-GOMA (RCD-GOMA), a political party turned from a rebel group once backed by Rwanda. Ruberwa holds a law degree from the University of Lubumbashi in DRC's southeastern Katanga Province. He is a Tutsi, an ethnic group known in eastern DRC as the Banyamulenge, whose ancestral roots are traced to neighboring Rwanda.

He entered the political arena during the 1997 rebellion against president Mobutu Sese Seko. With the success of the rebellion, he became director of the Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs in president Laurent Kabila's government from 1997 through 1998. During this period, he represented the DRC at negotiations on the creation of the International Criminal Court. He became the fourth head of the RCD-GOMA on June 16, 2003.

-- PIERRE PAY-PAY WA SYAKASSIGHE: 60, founder of the Coalition of Congolese Democrats (CODECO). The number of the party's legislative contenders ranks the second after Kabila-led PPRD.

Pay-Pay was born in Bukavu, South Kivu province, and obtained a master's degree in economics at the Lovanium University in 1969.

He is well-known in the DRC and has been a member of parliament since 2003.

He served principally in the government of Mobutu Sese Seko -- in 1980 being the minister for economy, industry and trade, and in 1984 being general delegate for the mining giant, Gecamines, in the province of Katanga. When Laurent Kabila became president in 1997, Pay-Pay went into exile in Belgium. However, during the civil war, he maintained close links with the Mai-Mai resistance, a rebel group operating in South Kivu province.

-- OSCAR KASHALA LUKUMUENDA: born in early 1950s, leader of the Union for the Rebuilding of Congo.

He was born in Lubumbashi in DRC's southeastern Katanga Province, and went to high school there and was accepted to the University of Kinshasa Medical School, the best medical school in the country, and later graduated as the top college graduate.

While in college, Kashala became the President of the Council of Wise Students, a secret student organization challenging the government of Mobutu Sese Seko on issues of human rights and corruption.

Under his direction, students staged huge protests against Mobutu.

After graduation, Kashala pursued his career in medicine in America. He went to study at Harvard University in 1987, and received a Doctor of Science degree there.

Kashala now works in the biotechnology field as a senior director of clinical research at Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he is leading the clinical efforts to develop drugs for some of the deadliest cancers in the U.S. and Europe, namely, lung cancer and colorectal cancer.

He created a registered political party called the Union for the Rebuilding of Congo.

Married to Prudence, Kashala has eight children, including three adopted ones.

Source: Xinhua

Source: Xinhua