{"id":827,"date":"2011-11-25T13:47:52","date_gmt":"2011-11-25T13:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sardc.net\/en\/?p=827"},"modified":"2015-04-23T10:53:34","modified_gmt":"2015-04-23T10:53:34","slug":"sadc-deploys-for-drc-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sardc.net\/en\/southern-african-news-features\/sadc-deploys-for-drc-polls\/","title":{"rendered":"SADC deploys for DRC polls"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Kizito Sikuka – SANF 11 No 35<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Southern Africa\u2019s biggest-ever election observer mission will observe the 28
\nNovember general elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/p>\n

More than 200 observers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will
\nmonitor DRC\u2019s second democratic elections since independence in 1960.<\/p>\n

According to a statement by SADC, South African Correctional Services Minister,
\nNosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula will lead the SADC Election Observer Mission (SEOM) which
\nwas deployed on 11November.<\/p>\n

A total of 11 presidential candidates will take part in the elections, including the
\nincumbent Joseph Kabila who is seeking a second term.<\/p>\n

Kabila has been in power since 2001 following the death of his father the same year.
\nIn 2006, he won the country\u2019s first democratic elections after years of unrest.<\/p>\n

Other presidential candidates include veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi
\nof the Union for Democracy and Social Progress party, and Vital Kamerhe, a former
\nelection campaign manger for Kabila who now heads the Congolese National Party.<\/p>\n

Jean-Pierre Bemba, who came second in the 2006 presidential election, is not taking
\npart in the election as he is facing trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC)
\nfor alleged crimes against humanity committed by his rebel troops in the Central
\nAfrican Republic in 2002.<\/p>\n

According to an Electoral Reform Bill approved by the Parliament, the President and
\n500 Members of Parliament would be elected for five-year terms by simple majority,
\nwith no second round of voting.<\/p>\n

In the previous election, a candidate needed to win 50 percent-plus-one votes to be
\nelected president. A second round of voting was previously required pitting the top
\ntwo candidates to determine the winner in the event that none of the presidential
\ncandidates garnered more than half of the votes.<\/p>\n

In the 2006 election Kabila won 44.81 percent of votes in the first round poll in
\nJuly while his closest rival, Bemba, had 20.03 percent.<\/p>\n

This prompted the holding of a run-off poll in October of the same year in which
\nKabila won 58.05 percent of the ballots against 41 percent for Bemba.<\/p>\n

More than 18,500 candidates will contest for 500 seats in a parallel parliamentary
\nelection, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI).<\/p>\n

More than 32 million voters have registered for the elections. This represents a
\nsignificant increase compared to about 25.6 million that registered for the previous
\nelection.<\/p>\n

As per tradition, the SEOM will monitor the electoral process in three phases,
\nnamely, the pre-election, the election and the post-election periods.<\/p>\n

After the polls, SEOM will release a draft report on how the elections were
\nconducted, with a final report coming later. This is in line with the SADC
\nPrinciples and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections, which encourage Member
\nStates to promote common political values and systems.<\/p>\n

The SADC observer team is expected to interact with other regional and international
\nmissions such as the African Union and European Union teams that have been invited
\nto monitor the elections.<\/p>\n

The conduct of the different observer missions will be guided by the Constitution
\nand electoral laws of the DRC.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\r\n\r\n

Southern African News Features offers a reliable source of regional information and analysis on the Southern African Development Community, and is provided as a service to the SADC region. <\/strong><\/p>\r\n

This article may be reproduced with credit to the author and publisher.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/span>\r\n\r\n

SANF is produced by the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC), which has monitored regional developments since 1985.      Email: <\/em>sanf@sardc.net<\/em><\/strong>      <\/em><\/p>\r\n

Website and Virtual Library for Southern Africa<\/em>     <\/em>www.sardc.net<\/em><\/strong><\/a>  <\/em>Knowledge for Development<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Kizito Sikuka – SANF 11 No 35 Southern Africa\u2019s biggest-ever election observer mission will observe the 28 November general elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-southern-african-news-features"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4h5b0-dl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sardc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sardc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sardc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sardc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sardc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sardc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3779,"href":"https:\/\/www.sardc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827\/revisions\/3779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sardc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sardc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sardc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}