Violent anti-government protests over a delayed presidential ballot expected this year left two people dead and eight wounded on Tuesday in a central Congolese diamond-mining town, police said.
Demonstrators in Mbuji-Mayi set buildings ablaze and torched tires and garbage in the road to protest the government's delay in holding elections, the town's police chief Jean-Diedonne Oleko said.
Elections were supposed to take place on June 30, as mandated by the country's transitional constitution drafted at the end of Congo's 1998-2002 war. However, poor planning and legislative foot dragging has delayed the vote and no new date has been set.
On Monday, Congo's parliament approved a new constitution that paves way for an end to the transitional government and elections by June next year.
Three police were seriously beaten by protesters when they arrived to stop the demonstrations, said Oleko.
He wouldn't elaborate how the other five were wounded, or how two people died in the clashes. However, journalists and residents in the town said they heard many gunshots during the protests.
Oleko said the demonstrators set fire to the offices of two political parties -- Rally for Congolese Democracy and Movement for the Liberation of Congo -- whose leaders are vice presidents in Congo's transitional government. They also torched an the office of an aid organization, but Oleko could not say which one.
"Since last Saturday there have been flyers advertising these demonstrations," said Oleko, speaking by telephone from Mbuji-Mayi. "The police have restored order now."
Throughout the week, similar pamphlets calling for protests littered the streets of Kinshasa, but the streets remained calm on Tuesday.
Tuesday was a national holiday, marking former rebel leader Laurent Kabila's 1997 march into Congo's capital Kinshasa to oust former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.
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