Congo sets July parliamentary election date

Elections to Congo-Brazzaville's national assembly will be held on July 10, the central African country's government announced on state television on Friday.

Government spokesman Thierry Moungalla said that members of the military would vote first on July 4, while the rest of the electorate would vote on July 10.

Parliamentary elections in the Republic of Congo, an oil-rich nation also known as Congo-Brazzaville, have two rounds.

The date for the second-round ballot has not been set, however.

The Congolese Labour Party (PCT) of President Denis Sassou Nguesso is currently the largest in the 151-seat assembly, with 92 deputies. It has already declared its candidates for the coming poll.

Nguesso, a 78-year-old former paratrooper, has been president of the Republic of Congo for a total of 37 years.

The country's leading opposition party, the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS), intends to contest the election.

But two smaller parties have indicated that they will boycott the poll, which they argue will be rigged.