by Juakali Kambale – SANF 05 No 112
The Democratic Republic of Congo is set to embrace the proposed changes to the national Constitution via the 18 December referendum and avoid a potential leadership vacuum.
The mandate of the current transitional government comes to an end in June next year and through the referendum, the people of DRC will decide whether elections will take place in early 2006 to elect a popular government.
The transitional government fears that should a “No” vote prevail, a power vacuum could be created as it would not be possible to uphold the decision to have elections next year.
“If that happens [the majority votes No], then it will be anybody’s guess because the transitional government ends in June. But we are certain that the elections will take place in March next year,” said the DRC ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mawampanga Mwana Nanga in an interview with SADC Today.
If the people of DRC vote “Yes” on 18 December, this would facilitate the holding of general elections on 27 March 2006 as planned. The country’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) says that, if necessary, a presidential runoff would follow in April, at a date to be announced.
The referendum was initially set for 13 November but was postponed to 18 December because the identification and enrolment of voters has taken longer than expected. Initially, voter registration was scheduled to take place within three months but was still ongoing by early November.
The exercise was met with unforeseen hurdles due to the immense size of the country, coupled with the poor state of the communications infrastructure.
In some cases, people had to travel distances of more than 100 km to access the identification and enrolment centres scattered across the country.
As if that was not enough, the equipment to register voters had by end of October not arrived in some mountainous areas, particularly the eastern parts of the country.
Other obstacles have been security-related. In the volatile Ituri district in the northeast of the country, the IEC was prevented from identifying and enrolling local voters.
In Bunia, some militias attacked the commission’s technicians and took the election materials and equipment, including computers and generators. The UN observer team’s logistics department was struggling to ensure that the whole country is covered.
The initial deadline for general elections was 30 June this year, and from that date riots rocked Kinshasa, the country’s capital city, and Mbujimayi in East Kasai, in the centre of the country.
Some opposition political parties, such as the Rally for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) of Etienne Tshisekedi, wanted the transitional government to leave office on that date in line with the Sun City Agreement signed in South Africa.
That agreement, signed on 2 April 2003 by the then belligerent groups, paved the way for a transitional government which within 24 months would wind up and facilitate a democratically-elected government.
The crisis was brought to an end when parliament granted the government a further 12 months to fulfil its commitments.
If elections go ahead in March as planned, the elected president is expected to be sworn in on 30 June, DRC’s Independence Day.
IEC president, Reverend Apollinaire Malu Malu remains positive that the government and the parliament will make it possible to hold the elections in time.
“The referendum law is ready and has been translated into the four major national languages of Kiswahili, Lingala, Tshiluba and Kikongo because all Congolese people have to understand this important text,” he explained.
Necessary facilities have been made available for physically challenged persons including the blind and the deaf.
DRC’s population is estimated at 60 million. The IEC had initially targeted to register about half of the total population — between 25 and 28 million potential voters.
By early November, the commission had enrolled about 20 million people and had revised the target to about 21 million people by the end of the operation. “Technically, we cannot do more,” Rev Malu Malu said.
Meanwhile, some essential laws were not ready by end of October as the IEC was still awaiting parliamentary approval. These included the Electoral Law and the Amnesty Law.
According to parliamentary spokesperson, Raphael Luhulu, the National Assembly was ready to discuss the two pieces of legislation and adopt them but the government had not submitted them.
The electoral laws are necessary in the identification of potential candidates for the various political offices.
Several candidates have declared an interest to compete for the presidency. These include the incumbent Joseph Kabila, of the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy; Jean-Pierre Bemba, who is the current vice-president of the republic in charge of economics and finance; Azarias Ruberwa, the vice-president in charge of politics, defence and security; and Professor Arthur Z’Ahidi Ngoma, vice-president in charge of culture and social issues.
Another candidate is Tshisekedi, remembered for his opposition to Mobutu Sese Seko who was overthrown in May 1997 by Laurent Desire Kabila, father of the incumbent president.
Justine Kasavubu, the only woman candidate, is the daughter of Joseph Kasavubu, the first president of DRC, when Patrice Lumumba was prime minister. SADC Today
