The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said on Wednesday that 30 million ballots and election supplies would be delivered to polling stations by Friday as part of preparations for the upcoming historic elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The UNDP said in a statement it was helping the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) distribute electoral material to around 50,000 polling stations in the country.

With the assistance of the UNDP and the UN mission in the DRC (MONUC), the west African country will hold its first presidential and legislative elections in 45 years on July 30.

Meanwhile, at 210 regional training sites, UNDP and MONUC are concluding the training of 12,000 Polling Centre Supervisors who will assist local elections staff in organizing "fair and transparent elections".

So far, approximately 1,300 observers from the international community have arrived in the DRC to help oversee the elections. The Electoral Observation Mission of the European Union (MOE-UE), an important contributor to the DRC elections, appealed on Wednesday to the IEC to reinforce its arrangements to avoid electoral fraud.

Source: Xinhua