by Joseph Ngwawi – SANF 06 No 58
Parliamentary candidates will contest for 189 constituencies in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) elections set for Sunday, 30 July.
The DRC’s electoral law divides the country into districts that will elect 500 members of the National Assembly.
Some constituencies will have single-seat representations using a first-past-the-post system. The electoral law provides that such constituencies are those districts with fewer than 51,000 votes.
The number of parliamentary deputies in the constituencies with more than 51,000 votes will be determined using a system of proportional representation of the various political parties.
The latter group of constituencies will have more than one Member of Parliament. A total of 500 seats are available in the National Assembly.
The constituencies are organised into 11 provinces, with Equator province having the largest number of constituencies at 27.
The smallest province in terms of the number of constituencies is Maniema province, with only eight constituencies.
Kinshasa province, in which the capital city falls, has 24 constituencies while Kivu province has been split into two – Southern Kivu and Northern Kivu, with nine constituencies each. Kivu province has had pockets of rebel fighting in recent months.
Some constituencies have more than 100 candidates each contesting for seats. These include Lubumbashi Ville constituency in Katanga province, which has a staggering 588 candidates; Mbuji Mayi Ville in Eastern Kasai province, with 429 candidates; Bukavu Ville in Southern Kivu province with 224 candidates; Kamonia constituency in Western Kasai province with 160 candidates; and Walungu (also in South Kivu) with 147 candidates.
The large number of candidate per constituency is likely to pose challenges to voters in some areas.
The voting process is being managed by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), a statutory body first created by the DRC’s 2003 Transitional Constitution.
The IEC is led by a civil society representative, Apollinaire Malu Malu, and the 30 July elections will be its first polls.
The 2006 DRC Constitution provided for an independent national electoral commission, which will be a judicial body with the mandate of organising the electoral process, especially voter registration, maintenance of voters’ rolls, management of the voting process and counting of votes.
To ensure effective coordination of the electoral process, several coordination frameworks were established, which included representatives of government institutions, political parties, civil society groups, international non-governmental organisations and the international community.
The country’s Electoral Law, which came into force in March, recognises the sovereignty of the people to govern themselves, gender equality at all levels of government, as well as people living with disabilities.
It also provides for the secrecy of the ballot and inclusiveness of the political participation of key actors.
It provides guidelines for how elections are to be prepared and run, sets electoral districts and establishes dispute resolution procedures.
The electoral process was planned in several phases that included voter registration that took place early last year, the December 2005 constitutional referendum and the presidential and parliamentary elections.
Despite initial logistical difficulties, largely caused by the slow pace of the peace process and poor infrastructure, the IEC has achieved notable successes in administering the electoral process.
This included the registration of more than 25.6 million eligible voters out of a total population of around 60 million.
Incumbent President Joseph Kabila, who is contesting as an independent despite heading the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy is widely favoured to win the presidential poll.
Three of the four vice-presidents in his interim government are among the 32 other candidates. Two of them – Jean-Pierre Bemba and Azarias Ruberwa – headed foreign-backed rebel groups that opposed Kabila’s father during the 1998-2003 war.
The DRC polls are also interesting in that at least four children of the country’s former leaders will be contesting for the right to occupy the Presidential Palace in Kinshasa.
Besides Kabila, whose father was killed by one of his own bodyguards in 2001, three of the 32 other presidential candidates are children of former presidents or prime ministers.
These are Patrice Guy Lumumba, François Joseph Nzanga Mobutu and Justine M’poyo Kasavubu.
Lumumba is the youngest son of the country’s first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, who was assassinated in January 1961.
Nzanga Mobutu is the son of Mobutu Sese Seko and his second wife, Bobi Ladawa. Ladawa was by the late Zairean leader’s side during his exile in 1997 and death in Morocco.
M’poyo Kasavubu is daughter of the DRC’s first post-independence president, Joseph Kasavubu.
