KINSHASA
Security forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) used teargas and fired live rounds in the air on Monday to prevent hundreds of people from reaching the headquarters of the National Assembly (parliament) in capital Kinshasa.
The demonstrators, protesting against a new election law recently endorsed by the government of President Joseph Kabila, shouted slogans against the latter and called for his departure.
More than a thousand policemen, including members of the republican guards, were deployed across Kinshasa ahead of the protest, a police source said.
Policemen fired teargas before they fired live rounds into the air to scare the demonstrators away, but the demonstrators pelted the policemen with stones, eyewitnesses told The Anadolu Agency.
One of the protesters was badly injured by police gunfire, a medical source said.
Policemen also prevented the protesters and journalists from entering the Education Street, where the offices of some of Congo's opposition parties are located.
Most of the demonstrators were male youths who chanted in criticism of the Congolese president.
Government spokesman Lambert Mende told AA that the demonstrators were dispersed "to safeguard the sanctity of the parliament."
"The demonstrators had tried to come to the headquarters of the National Assembly, even as the law prohibits this," he added.
Late on Saturday, a new election law was approved during a parliament session that was boycotted by opposition lawmakers.
The Congolese opposition and civil society fear that the law would be a prelude for Kabila to seek a third term in office, even as his country's constitution allows him to spend two terms only.
