Opposition candidate says barred from staging rally

A frontrunner in DR Congo’s presidential elections said he had been barred from staging a rally in a key city yesterday, 12 days before polling day. Former oil executive Martin Fayulu, 62, a lawmaker making a late surge in the campaign, said police had diverted him away from the rally venue in Lubumbashi. “They made us follow an itinerary...(preventing us) from reaching the venue,” he said in a tweet. “They sent us to the home of ‘Papa’ Kyungu,” he said, referring to a local opposition leader. An AFP reporter at the scene of the rally said police fired teargas to disperse several hundred people who had gathered to welcome Fayulu.