![A woman at a remote medical clinic in Chambucha. She fled fighting between the Congolese army and remnants of the Hutu militias that carried out the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/b469d2e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/200x253+0+0/resize/880x1113!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.npr.org%2Fprograms%2Fmorning%2Ffeatures%2F2006%2Fjul%2Fbeaubien%2Fwoman200-8e64d14eac55c9dd21b4d230a9bb790fcc59867e.jpg)
Jason Beaubien, NPR /
Later this month, the Democratic Republic of Congo is scheduled to hold its first free elections in almost half a century -- the troubled central African nation hasn't had free democratic polls since 1960.
With international donors spending more than $400 million on the polls, the elections are the most expensive elections ever held in Africa. But backers say it's worth the hope that a representative government can lead Congo out of years of turmoil.
If none of the 33 presidential candidates gets 50 percent of the vote on July 30, there will be a runoff.
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