Chamber:
	Assemblée nationale
Dates of elections / renewal (from/to):
	26 May 2002 23 June 2002
Purpose of elections:
	For the first time since the approval, by referendum on 20 January 2002, of the new Constitution ushering in a bicameral Parliament, elections were held for the complete renewal of the National Assembly. The previous general elections to the Transitional National Council took place in January 1998.
Background and outcome of elections:
	On 26 May 2002, voters went to the polls for the third time in five months in the first round of elections to the new National Assembly. This body, together with a Senate, replaces the provisional parliament, the Transitional National Council (CNT), the members of which had been appointed at the Forum on Reconciliation and Democracy in 1998. According to the National Election Organization Commission (CONEL), over 1.7 million voters were registered to elect MPs from among 1,204 candidates. The campaign for the first round, in which the opposition took part, officially began on 10 May 2002 and was not marked by any major incidents. Some candidates felt that the campaign was tainted by vote-buying. The campaign focused on economic and good governance issues. The Congolese economy, devastated by a decade of civil war, began to recover in 2000 thanks to a series of reforms undertaken by the government with the support of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB). The official results for the first round placed the Congolese Labour Party (CLP), the former single party of President Denis Sassou Nguesso and his allies, out in front with over 40 seats out of the 51 filled on that occasion. Two opposition parties, the Panafrican Union for Social Democracy of deposed President Mr. Pascal Lissouba and the Union for Democracy and the Republic (UDR-Mwinda) of the former Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. André Milongo, only obtained two seats each. Independent candidates took the remaining seats. In the second round of the legislative elections, which took place on 23 June 2002 along with local and municipal elections, 78 new seats were filled. As in the first round, no voting took place in eight electoral districts owing to clashes between government forces and so-called "Ninja" militiamen. By-elections will be held in these districts once circumstances so allow. According to the official results, the supporters of President Nguesso won the second round of the legislative elections by a large margin. The Congolese Labour Party (CLP) and its allies from the United Democratic Forces (UDF) polled 43 seats out of the 78 to be filled in the second round. The opposition took eight seats, while independent candidates and small political groupings accounted for the rest. On 10 August 2002, the new National Assembly held its inaugural sitting and elected Mr Jean-Pierre Tchystere Tchicaya as Speaker.

STATISTICS

Round no 1: Distribution of seats
Political Group	Total
Congolese Labour Party (CLP) + allies	40
Opposition parties	4
Independents and others	7
Round no 2: Distribution of seats
Political Group	Total
Congolese Labour Party (CLP) + allies	43
Opposition parties	8
Independents and others	27

Comments:
	No voting took place in eight electoral districts

Distribution of seats according to sex:
Men:	117
Women:	12
Percent of women:	9.30