搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。
(单词翻译)
IN THE NEWS - Citizens of War-Torn Congo Await Outcome of Historic ElectionsBy Jerilyn Watson
Broadcast: Saturday, August 05, 2006
This is Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
Citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo had to wait a long time for the elections last Sunday. It was the first time in almost a half-century that there were candidates from more than one party. Great numbers of people voted in the presidential and legislative1 elections. But a slow start to counting votes means another wait.
President Joseph Kabila
Early reports suggested that President Joseph Kabila faced his strongest competition from Vice2 President Jean-Pierre Bemba. More than thirty presidential candidates were on the ballot3. If no one gets fifty percent of the vote, citizens will choose between the two top candidates in October.
President Kabila heads a large coalition4 of parties. Mister Bemba is a former leader of a rebel force. Several human rights groups have accused him of major violations5. He is one of four vice presidents in a temporary government of national unity6.
Almost ten thousand candidates competed for the five hundred seats in the national legislature. Thousands more ran for local legislatures.
Final results are not expected for about three weeks.
The United Nations helped organize the elections. U.N. peacekeeping troops and a force from Gabon assisted with security. The Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly7 Zaire, is a huge country in Central Africa with sixty million people.
The U.N. Security Council praised the millions who, it said, took part freely and peacefully, in democratic elections of historical importance for their nation. It also appealed to the Congolese people to receive the results with the same spirit of civic8 responsibility.
Most foreign observers were satisfied with the voting process. But several presidential candidates say there was cheating. They include former rebel leader Azarias Ruberwa. He was supported by Rwanda during the years of civil war in which almost four million people died in Congo. A number of nations took part in the fighting between nineteen ninety-six and two thousand two.
The main opposition9 party, led by Etienne Tshisekedi, boycotted10 the elections. Some local election officials accused his supporters of setting fire to election centers and voting materials in a diamond-mining city.
Mister Tshisekedi became active in politics in nineteen sixty. That was the year Congo won independence from Belgium.
In nineteen ninety-seven Laurent Kabila, father of the current president, ousted11 the longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Joseph Kabila became president after his father was killed at his palace in two thousand one.
Supporters say Joseph Kabila united the rebels to help end the war. Critics say he should not lead Congo because he was not born there -- something he denies.
And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written this week by Jerilyn Watson. You can read transcripts12 of our shows and listen online at www.unsv.com.
1 legislative | |
n.立法机构,立法权;adj.立法的,有立法权的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 vice | |
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 ballot | |
n.(不记名)投票,投票总数,投票权;vi.投票 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 coalition | |
n.结合体,同盟,结合,联合 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 violations | |
违反( violation的名词复数 ); 冒犯; 违反(行为、事例); 强奸 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 unity | |
n.团结,联合,统一;和睦,协调 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 formerly | |
adv.从前,以前 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 civic | |
adj.城市的,都市的,市民的,公民的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 opposition | |
n.反对,敌对 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 boycotted | |
抵制,拒绝参加( boycott的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 ousted | |
驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 ); 革职; 罢黜; 剥夺 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 transcripts | |
n.抄本( transcript的名词复数 );转写本;文字本;副本 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。