The Congolese people should regard this as "a state dossier on which the future of the Democratic Republic of the Congo will depend," La Tempête des Tropiques quotes Maître Nlandu Mpolo.

Meanwhile, yesterday, "Pro-Bemba [demonstrators] bearing palm branches and wearing T-shirts printed with [their leader's] image staged a sit-in at the Supreme Court," La Tempête des Tropiques reports. Vociferating and growling, "they were brought under control only when more riot police units were brought in," according to Le Potentiel.

In another development, La Référence Plus reports that the newly elected deputies in a plenary meeting yesterday "continued to examine article by article the text of draft internal rules and regulations for the National Assembly." According to the paper, the Office of the Chamber of Deputies will be "composed in accordance with the Chamber's political configuration."

This Office's composition should rather "reflect the election results and not be based on arrangements among Lower Chamber politicians," says La Référence Plus, quoting Delly Sessanga, a deputy from Bemba's MLC party. Mr Sessanga is quoted further saying "The DRC's emerging democracy needs to assure an adequate place for the opposition."

Pro-Kabila deputies do not share that view. "The time for consultations, negotiations and political arrangements has gone by...," writes L'Observateur, echoing a deputy from President Kabila's Presidential Majority Alliance (AMP). "It is the majority which is to lead and decide which course [the Assembly's activities] should take but with active participation by the minority," AMP deputy Duir Katond is quoted as saying.

Those in the opposition do not concur. Mr Delly Sessanga is quoted in La Référence Plus saying "If the opposition cannot express itself... within... the National Assembly, the only place for us to do so will remain the street."