Troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo are blocking entry to a stadium where the main opposition leader plans to inaugurate himself as president.<\/p>\n
Etienne Tshisekedi has rejected the official victory of incumbent President Joseph Kabila in November’s elections.<\/p>\n
The BBC’s Thomas Hubert in the capital, Kinshasa, says there is a large security presence around the stadium.<\/p>\n
But Mr Tshisekedi’s spokesman told the BBC the UDPS leader still intended to go ahead with the inauguration.<\/p>\n
President Kabila was sworn in for a second term on Tuesday after being declared the official winner with 49% of the vote, compared to Mr Tshisekedi’s 32%.<\/p>\n
Western observers denounced the presidential results as seriously flawed, but the election commission – backed by the African Union – hailed the polls a success.<\/p>\n
The US-based campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW) says police have killed at least 24 people since the disputed polls.<\/p>\n
Tanks, water canon and RPGs<\/strong><\/p>\n On Thursday, Mr Tshisekedi’s Union for Democracy and Social Progress party sent out what appeared to be official invitations on presidential letterheads, urging journalists and diplomats to attend the swearing-in ceremony on Friday morning.<\/p>\n But our reporter says he was refused entry to the stadium and all the roads around Mr Tshisekedi’s residence in the capital have been cordoned off.<\/p>\n According to the AFP news agency, police have used tear gas to disperse opposition supporters gathered around the house.<\/p>\n The police, military and Mr Kabila’s elite Republican Guard have all been deployed around Martyrs Stadium in Kinshasa, which is an opposition stronghold, our correspondent says.<\/p>\n Tanks, water cannon and soldiers armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades can also be seen.<\/p>\n The police have made some arrests as people try to get into the stadium, our reporter says.<\/p>\n A few hundred people are walking towards the stadium on one of the city’s main streets, but are proceeding with caution, he adds.<\/p>\n Diplomats have been encouraging dialogue over the disputed poll, but dozens of people have died in clashes in Kinshasa and other opposition strongholds since election day.<\/p>\n November’s polls were the second in DR Congo since the 1998-2003 war, which claimed an estimated four million lives.<\/p>\n On Thursday, the election commission halted the counting of votes from the parliamentary poll, saying it needed international help to complete counting following allegations of rigging.<\/p>\n Mr Tshisekedi led the campaign for democracy under former leader Mobutu Sese Seko but these were the first elections he has contested.<\/p>\n He boycotted the last poll in 2006, organised under the auspices of the United Nations, after claiming they had been rigged in advance.<\/p>\n They were marred by weeks of street battles led by supporters of the losing candidate, Jean-Pierre Bemba.<\/p>\n He is now on trial at the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in neighbouring Central African Republic.<\/p>\n DR Congo is two-thirds the size of Western Europe but hardly has any infrastructure, such as roads and electricity. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo are blocking entry to a stadium where the main opposition leader plans to inaugurate himself as president. Etienne Tshisekedi has rejected the official victory of incumbent President Joseph Kabila in November’s elections<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n