Kinshasa, 10 March: Democracy took a historic step forward in the Democratic Republic of Congo as President Joseph Kabila promulgated (offentliggjorde/forkyndte) a new electoral law that sets 18 June as the date of the first election in the DR Congos 46-year history as an independent nation.
The preparations for the 18 June vote for a president and parliament already constitute the largest and most complex UN electoral-assistance mission ever undertaken. It is a 422,9 million US dollar (2,62 milliarder DKR) joint initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Mission in the DR Congo (MONUC).
The promulgation by President Kabila in Kinshasa Thursday marked the culmination of a nearly year-long process that included the creation of an independent election commission, training poll workers, and a nationwide voter-registration campaign.
With support from UN peacekeepers and the UNDP Electoral Assistance Project (APEC), 25,7 million Congolese have been registered to vote in a country the size of Western Europe with few functioning roads or other basic infrastructure.
The 80-kilogram voter registration kits – each containing a laptop computer, fingerprinting materials and a digital camera – were distributed to every village in the vast country by means ranging from light aircraft and trucks to dugout canoes and litters hand-carried through dense rainforest.
One immediate benefit of the registration drive was the distribution to eligible voters of national identity cards, an important tool for safeguarding citizens rights and access to public services.
William Swing, the Special Representative in the DR Congo of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, stressed the historic importance of this massive operation.
– This is the closest that the Congolese people have been to a credible election since independence in 1960, Swing explained, adding:
– They have the largest and most sustained international support since independence, including the largest UN peacekeeping mission in the history of UN peacekeeping. We are encouraged simply because of the sheer enthusiasm of the people, who are determined to get back to conditions of stability and legitimacy of institutions.
Stability in the DR Congo is crucial for the progress of the entire continent, Swing added: – We know that a solution to the Congolese crisis would offer a great deal to Africa, probably more than any other situation on the continent right now. So we have to succeed, he noted.
The purpose of UNDPs APEC project is to provide essential technical and logistical support for the DR Congos Independent Election Committee (IEC), including procurement of election materials and the training of elections personnel.
An estimated 270 million US dollar is being invested in voter registration and other preparations for the historic vote. The Congolese government has pledged 40 million dollar to support the effort.
Malu Malu, head of the IEC, says that while there is much work still to be done before the June vote, he is confident that the election will be successful.
– I am optimistic, but it is not a naïve optimism. There is…a huge amount of reconstruction [to be done] in a country with a dilapidated (forsømte/forfaldne) infrastructure. Everyone must be put to work, but in applying the rules of good governance, he said.
The elections are an important step in a peace process aimed at ending a five-year civil war in the country, which affected six neighboring countries and killed four million people. Fighting continues in some of the countrys 11 provinces.
– There are about 1.200 Congolese who die every single day from the effects of this conflict. That is a tsunami every six months, said Ross Mountain, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and UNDP Resident Representative for the DR Congo.
A UN peacekeeping force 17.000 strong, the largest in UN history, will assist local and national police in the effort to guarantee a peaceful, orderly election process.
UNDPs governance unit in the DRC will continue the work of building democratic capacity after the elections are held. It will support civil society institutions, help build an accessible judiciary system and continue with civic education efforts.
The DRC has been riven by conflict throughout its history.
The vast countrys first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, was assassinated just four months after the country achieved independence from Belgium. A series of coups in its first years of existence led to the three-decade reign of Mobutu Sese Seko, notorious for its pervasive corruption.
In 1997 rebels took the capital and installed Laurent Kabila as president. Shortly afterward, the nation plunged into civil war, with factions supported from neighboring countries facing off against Kabilas forces. Joseph Kabila, the current president, took the reins of power when his father was assassinated in 2001.
The electoral laws adoption clears the way for registry of candidates for the presidency and parliament, a process that concludes on 23 March.
On 5 April the list of presidential candidates will be published; on 9 April, the Parliamentary candidates list will be released. Campaigns kick off on 18 May.
UNDP and its partners have already ramped up a strong civic-education process, a crucial component in preparing citizens for the nations first free election since 1960. Through plays, music and classes, the democratic process has been brought to life.
Setting the elections in motion has brought its share of challenges, particularly in logistics.
Shortly before the December referendum on the DR Congos new constitution, the company bidding to provide salaries to the countrys electoral workers pulled out of the process, putting the referendum at risk. UNDP arranged in a matter of days to pay 240.000 election workers and police in 10.000 locations.
– It was not easy, but we succeeded in doing it on time, said Simone-Pierre Nanitelamio, Head of Operations for APEC.
– It is a payment mechanism that we are going to improve for the next phases of the electoral process, namely for future voting, but that is the greatest challenge, to try to dispatch the material across a territory that is as vast as the European Union, added she.
Still, hopes are high that a successful election will set the stage for further development.
– One must be optimistic about the future of Congo, said Ross Mountain explaining:
– We have just launched an action plan as the international community here; not just the UN, but with our NGO partners and indeed in conjunction with the donors. There has been an extraordinary outburst of enthusiasm from the population to finally be able to name their leaders. They have come out, registered massively and are looking forward to participating in the election of their leaders.
– It will be a very fragile state, Mountain acknowledged concluding:
– The international community needs to be there to accompany that process, too. But I am very optimistic that this will be done. We must be here to support the newly elected leaders and allow them to provide tangible evidence to the population that democracy makes sense, that electing your leaders makes sense, that this country can stand on its own feet. I believe it can.
Tilføjelse fra u-landsnyt: New Zealænderen Ross Mountain nedstammer fra den danske konseilpræsident (datidens statsminister) Ditlev Monrad, der udvandrede til antipodelandet nedbøjet efter nederlaget i 1864, som han påtog sig en del af skylden for.
Kilde: www.undp.org
