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Sunday, March 10, 2002 - Web posted at 8:18:05 am GMT

By Finbarr O'Reilly

BRAZZAVILLE, March 10 (Reuters) - Congo Republic's leader Denis Sassou Nguesso runs virtually unopposed in a presidential election on Sunday, the first to be held in the small, oil-rich central African nation in a decade.

The poll has been seen as a step towards lasting peace after a brief but bloody civil war in 1997 that drove up to a third of the former French colony's 2.8 million people from their homes and left some 10,000 dead.

But the credibility of the vote, from which Sassou's two main opponents had already been barred, was dealt a further blow on Friday when the only other serious challenger pulled out.

Former prime minister Andre Milongo alleged irregularities and urged his supporters to boycott the vote.

However, he told them not to cause trouble: "My withdrawal is not a pretext for disorder. Elections should not be confused with armed struggle," Milongo told Reuters on Saturday.

"There will be a heavier boycott than if Milongo had remained in the race," a senior Western diplomat said. "His participation would have added credibility to the election."

"But everything's relative and has to be seen as part of the transition away from war and economic and institutional collapse." Sassou first seized power in a military coup in 1979. Over the next 13 years, he loosened ties with the Soviet bloc and turned to the West to cash in on Congo's oil boom. He lost to Pascal Lissouba in elections in 1992 but grabbed back the presidency in the 1997 war with the backing of Angolan troops.

Ex-president Lissouba and another former prime minister, Bernard Kolelas, have been barred from standing in Sunday's election under strict residency rules. Both live in exile and have been convicted for crimes committed during the war.

Sassou has promised peace and called on the 1.7 million registered voters to stick with stability. His six challengers still left in the race have little, if any, hope of unseating the president, who has waged by far the most visible campaign.

A victory would hand him a seven-year mandate and a firm grip on power, thanks to a constitutional reform passed in January which critics say turns Congo into a virtual monarchy.

"The elections are only to legitimise a government that grabbed power by force," said opposition lawyer Herve Malonga.

Opponents also accuse the international community of hypocrisy in turning a blind eye to the poll in Congo while crying foul in Zimbabwe, whose presidential election this weekend is getting far more attention abroad.

Polls open at 6 a.m. (0500 GMT) and close 12 hours later. Nampa-Reuters