Summary

Editorial

1. Electoral process

   – The Activities of the Electoral Commission

   – Recent Irregularities

   – Civil Disorder during Electioneering

   – Republic’s Institutions disrupted

   – Civil society speaks out

   – Elections 2011: a defining moment

Editorial

The prevarication of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) in making available for audit the electoral files and the central server as demanded by the opposition parties, the various irregularities reported during the preparations for the elections (registration of minors, of persons whose nationality is in doubt, of military personnel in the electoral lists, the existence of duplicates, the creation of fictitious polling stations …), the build-up of delays in publishing the electoral roll and of polling stations, delays observed in the preparation and distribution of electoral equipment (polling booths, ballot boxes, ballot papers, …), the repression of demonstrations by opposition parties by the Congolese National Police (PNC), the muzzling of the press, the acts of political intolerance, the recourse to violence, the use of young martial arts experts to attack political opponents, the involvement of certain military personnel in the electoral campaign, and the suspicions of vote rigging, are some of the problems experienced during the run-up to the election, and during the campaign itself.

These events may have contributed to a climate of tension, nervousness, suspicion and uncertainty among the people. If mistakes and abuses have taken place in the run-up to 28 November, the date set aside for the elections, it is necessary to remedy these with the collaboration of all parties.

First of all, the CENI will have to resolve the numerous outstanding logistical problems, and, above all, ensure the transparency of the whole electoral process. Not only is its own credibility at stake but also the acceptance by the people of the election result.

The political parties must also bear their responsibilities. The credibility of the elections is not in fact solely the responsibility of the CENI but of the political parties as well. In order to counter any attempted fraud, it is down to the political parties to provide witnesses in all polling stations, whose presence will in addition contribute to transparency and freedom of choice.

The real preparation for elections is not in making vain promises or giving away t-shirts and drinks, but in sending witnesses to attest to the proper conduct of the vote.

The presence of independent electoral observers who can make an impartial and objective evaluation of everything that takes place before, during and after the election will also be invaluable.

The task of the security services will be the safeguarding of individuals and the maintenance of public order, with respect for human rights, and without the excessive use of force.

These then are the essential preconditions that may ensure that the results, whatever they may be, gain universal acceptance. Election results cannot be contested simply on the basis of unsupported accusations, in an attempt by losing candidates to cover up their own inadequacies or defeat at the polls. If there are reasons to contest the results, parties need to be ready to provide demonstrable proof, which is not simply a right but an obligation, if democracy is to prevail over dictatorship.

1. ELECTORAL PROCESS

The activities of the Electoral Commission

On 10 November, the vice-president of the CENI, Jacques Djoli, confirmed that in order to organise the elections within the time limit, the Commission was planning to complete the process of distributing the electoral equipment by 25 November at the latest. He stated that “to date {the distribution of. Ed} polling booths has reached practically 80%, and we have achieved the same level for the delivery of electoral kits. As far as ballot boxes are concerned, of the 16 rotations planned, 10 are already set up, and we shall have the remainder set up within two days”.

He announced that an initial batch of 14 tonnes of ballot papers for the presidential elections had arrived from South Africa on 9 November and a second batch of 12 tonnes on 12 November.

“The printing of ballot papers for the parliamentary elections has begun, and plans for the deployment of troops have been finalised with the South African Army and MONUSCO”, Jacques Djoli claimed .

On 14 November, according to the French press agency AFP, the vice-president of the CENI, Jacques Djoli, during a visit to Brussels, suggested that, on account of the enormous logistical difficulties still to be resolved, it was possible that the elections might be delayed by a few days. “If we are not ready, we shall ask for the elections to be postponed for a few days, until the 2 or 5 December”, Mr Djoli said, while maintaining that he was certain that both the presidential and parliamentary elections would take place on 28 November as planned .

On 15 November, the vice-president of the CENI, Jacques Djoli, denied the comments circulated by AFP, describing them as “Comments which have been falsely attributed to me by an agency I was not speaking to.” According to him, the CENI ruled out any possibility of a postponement of the elections, and confirmed that both the presidential and parliamentary ballots would take place on 28 November .

On 15 November, during a press conference, the president of the CENI, Daniel Ngoy Mulunda, announced that all of the 186 000 ballot boxes that the CENI had been awaiting from China had now arrived and were being distributed right across the country.

The printing of ballot papers for the Presidential Election was completed on 14 November in the Republic of South Africa. According to Ngoy Mulunda, 2.486 tonnes of ballot papers were expected from the RSA. He announced that two flights were expected on 16 November in Kinshasa, and a further two in Kishangani. On 17 November two flights would land in the town of Mbandaka and three more in Kisangani. On 18 November, 9 flights would land in the Congolese capital and four more in Kisangani to supply the towns of Bukavu and Bunia. One flight was expected in Lubumbashi on 19 November, a further two in Kindu, and two more on the same day at Gbadolite and Kananga respectively. On 20 November four flights were planned for Kinshasa, one to Kindu and another to the town of Mbuji-Mayi. This operation would be completed on 21 November with nine flights to Kinshasa, two to Lubumbashi, two to Kisangani, two to Kananga, and two to Mbandaka.

The president of the CENI admitted that “there were difficulties” with the distribution of ballot papers, but he insisted that his organisation was in the process of “surmounting them”.

To meet this “great logistical challenge”, according to Rev. Daniel Ngoy Mulunda, the CENI could count on “twenty or so helicopters from MONUSCO, four helicopters and two aircraft from FARDC [the Congolese Army], ten planes belonging to the SADC [Southern African Development Community] arriving from Angola, as well as six helicopters hired directly by the CENI”. With all of these arrangements in place, he promised that all electoral equipment would be in place in all of the polling stations by 25 November .

On 17 November the CENI announced in a press release that it was extending the deadline for accreditation of witnesses, journalists and observers by one week. The closing date, originally 17 November, would now be on the evening of 24 November. The CENI explained this decision as being due to the low number of applications for registration received. Many people claimed, however, that it was the CENI’s organisation that was to blame for this. Others, meanwhile, maintained that the responsibility lay with the political parties.

Certain “applicants” criticised the delays in issuing cards to Congolese nationals and “the discrimination suffered by nationals against international organisations” in this process. According to certain observers, the distribution of cards was delayed because the CENI took some considerable time in deciding who should sign the cards of Congolese nationals. There followed a problem with seals, and “some cards issued to Congolese nationals did not even have the CENI’s stamp on them.”

Others, meanwhile, criticised their own parties for not coordinating this process. In fact, several independent parliamentary candidates and numerous political parties waited until the last day before submitting their lists of witnesses and requests for accreditation. Moreover, candidates claimed that it took time to get the money together to pay the witnesses. Certain witnesses were demanding between 10 and 15 $US from candidates for attending at polling stations .

On 19 November, ten helicopters and two Antonov aircraft put at the disposal of the CENI by Angola arrived in Kinshasa to assist in the distribution of electoral equipment across the country .

Recent Irregulatities

On 9 November, in a letter addressed to the Independent National Electoral commission (CENI), after the publication of the list of polling stations in the constituency of Oshwe, Bandundu Province, certain parliamentary candidates judged that there was evidence of manipulation and of widespread fraud. They claimed that ‘site 22590 at Penyenye, a village in the Kiri district, should not be included as being within the Oshwe area. The Iyapa School, which it is supposed to contain, is actually located in the village of Popombo.” They go on: “site 30230031, a non-existent establishment in Manga, itself a village with fewer than ten eligible voters and no school, does not merit a polling station.” Candidates also denounced the fact that in certain areas polling stations were more than 70km apart, in contrast to other parts of constituencies where the geography was more favourable .

Less than two weeks before the elections in certain areas the CENI had posted neither the electoral roll nor the lists of polling stations. Ten days before the elections it was therefore unclear who could vote and where. The biggest problem here was the phenomenon of the “trade in polling cards”, especially in remote areas. “Many people here have exchanged their polling cards for small sums of money ( …). It’s possible that this will be used for vote tampering … which is why we are insisting that there are observers and witnesses in every polling station” insisted one member of a lay organisation, who wished to remain anonymous, in Kananga, Kasai Oriental. According to reports from lay organisations in this province, “in Mweka there are polling stations without codes and codes without polling stations”.

If nothing is done between now and polling day to establish greater transparency the stage will be set for fraud by the ruling party, and the contesting of the election result by the opposition. Elections can run smoothly only if they are transparent and thus credible .

On 17 November the people of Shabunda protested against the location of polling stations for the Bamuguba and Baliga groups, about 150km north east of Shabunda (South Kivu). During a peaceful march, they claimed that of the 27 polling stations within the chieftainship of Basisi, only four were alloacated to these two groups. According to community leaders, this distribution of polling stations was “inequitable” .

Voters in the districts of Upper Uele and Ituri (Eastern Province) accused the CENI of withdrawing certain polling stations in the regions of Irumu, Mambasa, and Watsa. According to them this would penalise more than 40 000 voters, the majority of whom were pygmies, who would now have to travel between 15 and 50km to vote .

On 21 November, in a press conference in Kinshasa, Alexis Mutanda Ngoyi Muana, president of the UDPS [Union for Democracy and Social Progress] Electoral Standing Committee denounced irregularities observed in several constituencies, among other things, the setting up of fictitious polling stations, lists of voters not being displayed, and the withdrawal of certain polling stations. To remedy all of these irregularities, the UDPS demanded that fictitious polling stations be withdrawn, that certain other stations be re-established, and the lists of voters at each polling station be published.

This denunciation was not new, but for the UDPS, all of the ingredients of a large scale fraud were assembled. According to Etienne Tshisekedi’s party, the CENI and the powers that be were working in concert to bring about an electoral coup.

According to the UDPS there was a plethora of polling stations in Kinshasa and in the interior whose existence could only be explained by the need to site ballot boxes stuffed with fake ballot papers supporting the government candidate.

The UDPS warned that if the elections turned out to be fraudulent, it would call on the people to take action. For his part, the president of the Electoral Commission stated repeatedly that he is “the guarantor of transparency”.

According to certain observers the electoral map needed to be completely overhauled on account of the size of the country and the time that had elapsed between the elections of 2006 and 2011.

In fact, one education official assigned to an enrolment centre admitted the following: “the CENI’s mistake was to have copied and pasted the polling station map from 2006. However, in the intervening period, schools that had previously housed polling stations had changed functions. There was then an unpleasant surprise for voters in these places. ”

In Kasai Oriental, Léon MulumbaKanyinda, parliamentary candidate in the Tshilenge constituency, named certain polling stations: “of the polling stations that are situated in the candidates’ houses, and especially PPRD candidates, there are stations 20-640, 20-639 and 20-641. The officials in these polling stations are the supporters of those candidates.” The CENI was also accused of assigning fifteen polling booths to a school with only six classrooms. The majority of schools used by the CENI didn’t actually exist on the ground, according to Léon MulumbaKanyinda: “there is also station 20-658, which has been sited in the Dibika Institute, a non-existent school in Bena-Kalenda.” For his part, the regional head of the CENI, Emile Dimoke, confirmed that he had asked local managers to relocate all of the stations that had been allocated to private residences as quickly as possible .

One parliamentary candidate had already notified the CENI that in Kinshasa many voters were experiencing some difficulty in locating their polling stations and most of the sites given on the map were now houses, shops, or bars. According to the CENI this could be due to an error in the mapping of polling stations .

Still in Kinshasa, certain polling stations shown on the mapping published by the CENI did not exist. There were more than a hundred fictitious polling stations. At the Inga school complex in the Selembao area, only eight polling stations out of the twenty shown on the map actually existed. The eight stations shown on the map on the Avenue de la Foire in the Makala district did not exist. The primary schools 2 and 12, on that avenue, shown as stations on the CENI mapping, were unknown to locals. In the Kisenso district, the remedial education centre on Avenue Ntuka Kongo had six stations instead of thirty six. The Vinda School on Avenue Madimba contained a single station instead of thirty.

The vice president of the CENI, Jacques Djoli, acknowledged that it was possible that a polling station shown on the map might not exist at the address shown. He admitted that “a station could be planned in the mapping but non-existent on election day” and he invited people to inform the CENI in these circumstances: both the local CENI office as well as the central office should be informed of the code number of the, quote unquote, fictitious station and its location, so that it is recorded that this station is not open, even if it was shown on the plans. Jacques Djoli also asked people to report instances where polling stations did not correspond to electoral regulations. Article 48 of the regulations governing elections stipulates that a polling station may not be situated in: places of worship, the headquarters of political parties, trades unions and non-governmental organisations, bars, police stations, military camps, or military schools or academies .

On 22 November, the people of Idjiwi, an island in the middle of Lake Kivu to the North of Bukavu, surrounded the CENI offices in Bugarula during the morning before conducting a peaceful march. They were protesting against the omission of more than 20 000 voters from the electoral lists posted the previous day .

On 22 November, following close questioning on the point, the president of the CENI, Daniel Ngoy Mulunda, confirmed that the polling stations identified as fictitious were sites that had been schools five years ago, but were now private houses.

He declared that all necessary measures had been taken to ensure that all of these former schools now turned into private houses had now been removed. To compensate for this the CENI had relocated these stations which would now be housed in tents, that it was now about to deploy for this purpose .

On 22 November the president of the CENI responded to allegations made by certain press organs that 3 000 000 completed ballot papers with votes for one particular presidential candidate had already been placed in ballot boxes. These ballot papers originated in South Africa and were destined for Lubumbashi. Daniel NgoyMulunda pledged to sue those press organs that had taken the liberty of printing this “false information” .

On 23 November during a press briefing, the president of the CENI, Daniel Ngoy Mulunda, later clarified the view, both national and international, relating to the creation of fictitious polling stations. He explained that “there are no fictitious polling stations (…). When one speaks of a fictitious polling station, that is a station that one creates and hides with the intention of cheating. However when there is a station that is on the map but located incorrectly, there is no intention of cheating. Clearly some errors may have been committed in locating and setting up stations, if there were cases of human error, these would be corrected.

He observed that “when the electoral register was updated, voters chose their polling station, and the site chosen was printed on the polling card”, adding that “when polling stations were being set up, to reduce the problem of excessive distances between polling stations, the CENI had order the setting up of additional stations. He also indicated that when the combined polling stations and counting facilities (BVD) were created, stations with fewer than 20 voters were removed and the voters concerned were transferred to the next nearest station.” He also confirmed that the setting up of these stations would take place once the training of their officers was complete, or, to be precise, on the eve of the ballot. He underlined the fact that, “in those places where no school exists, another building, either public or private, that has been put at the disposal of the CENI is used. And where there is no suitable building, the CENI has bought tents to house the BVDs planned for.”

While admitting that “some errors had been committed during the process of setting up polling stations” he offered reassurance that all of these errors would be corrected before Election Day. The president of the CENI also gave some clarification regarding allegations made about the relocation of certain BVDs indicated on the plans. “Given that the setting and equipping of BVDs may not have occurred, if for some reason certain BVDs may have to be relocated, the CENI will undertake the necessary measures to inform all voters allocated to these BVDs of the change of location, which, in accordance with procedures, would not be sited more than one kilometre away. The same would apply to those voters omitted from the electoral roll, but who possessed their polling cards. He seized this opportunity to ask all voters who had their cards but whose names did not appear on the electoral roll to attend the polling station shown on their polling cards on Election Day. “Procedures will be in place to ensure their right to vote,” he insisted. For “greater transparency” in this process, Rev.Ngoy Mulunda invited national and international observers, journalists and party delegates to accompany the CENI on the ground .

Civil Disorder during Electioneering

On 9 November the entourage of Vital Kamerhe, President of the UNC (Union pour la Nation Congolaise) and 2011 presidential candidate, experienced some difficulty in entering the town of Kikwit (Bandundu Province). Police indicated that some youths from the PPRD, the ruling party, had set fire to some tyres in the village of Ndungi, on the road into Kikwit, obliging them to turn back.

Eye witnesses claimed that the situation deteriorated when Vital Kamerhe’s bodyguards got out of their vehicles to remonstrate with the youths. The police task force that arrived to remove the youths and reopen the road encountered some resistance. The incident resulted in three injured, of whom two were police and one youth belonging to the group alleged to be PPRD .

On 17 November, several people were injured during clashes between supporters of the UDPS and UNAFEC in Kamina, 600km north east of Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga.

Militant UNAFEC supporters attacked those of the UDPS after the latter burned a portrait of the head of state, Joseph Kabila. Houses belonging to people presumed to be from the province of Eastern Kasai, the home of M. Tshisekedi, to the west of Katanga, were also ransacked .

On 19 November, while Etienne Tshisekedi was holding an electoral campaign meeting in the centre of the Kasuku district of Kindu, stones were thrown both by supporters of his party, the UDPS, and those of the government. Several people were injured, three of the UDPS supporters seriously. Two UDPS members were also arrested by Congolese National Police (PNC). The incident was sparked off when youths from the government side arrived where Etienne Tshisekedi was conducting his meeting, carrying effigies of the outgoing president Joseph Kabila. Stones were thrown by supporters of the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), which is part of the governing coalition. They also damaged the windscreen of a car belonging to a PPRD member of parliament. On the morning of 20 November a group of women stationed themselves outside of the hotel where Tshisekedi was staying, chanting hostile slogans. They were protesting against comments made by Tshisekedi during the meeting on Saturday morning that were critical of Joseph Kabila .

Disruption of the Republic’s Institutions

During the run-up to the elections there has often been disruption to the functioning of the Republic’s institutions, when these should, in fact, have been maintaining continuity. The reason for this is that the majority ministers of these institutions are candidates in the forthcoming elections and are more preoccupied with their political future than with the proper conduct of official business. The CENI, in accepting as parliamentary candidates members of the Government and other public servants without their having resigned or been put on leave, was in clear violation of the laws governing elections in the DRC. It was up to the CENI to declare these candidates ineligible, to either strike them off or to annul the list of the political group or party involved. Section 8 of the Elections Act, paragraphs 5 and 7, stipulates that officials and agents in public administration, managers or public enterprises and magistrates not presenting either a request for leave or their resignation by the last date for registration of candidates, are ineligible to stand for election. Otherwise members of the government may use the property and finance of the State and public servants and buildings for the purposes of election propaganda. An imbalance is thus introduced into the campaign, and twice as much where certain individuals, to whom public funds and facilities are available, conduct and American-style campaign. The rest must make do with the crumbs at their disposal and experience great difficulty in conducting their campaigns. There are several cases on record, both in Kinshasa as well as in the interior, where it has been difficult to establish any clear difference between a candidate’s property and that belonging to the State. However, section 36 of the Elections Act states that “The use of public property and finances and of public servants is punishable by the cancellation of a candidature or the annulment of the list of the political party or group involved.”

More than 20 ministers have been on the campaign trail since 28 October 2011, which is due to come to an end next Saturday, 26 November, trying to secure election to Parliament, leaving their posts vacant and administrations working in slow motion. The Minister for Land Affairs, himself a candidate in Funa {district of Kinshasa}, has taken temporary control of a dozen ministries. As one might imagine, his desk is littered with files awaiting attention: and in certain ministries there is a very weekend-style atmosphere. The government of the Republic is now completely immobilised, for the simple reason that most of its ministers are on the campaign trail. The Elections Act limited itself to demanding that public servants take leave, that elected officers resign etc., but no provision was made for ministers currently holding office. If any measures need to be reviewed, section 10 of the Elections Act pertaining to ineligibility should exercise the attention of the honourable members of the next parliament. In fact, once a minister embarks on the campaign election to parliament, logic demands that he resign his post, not only to allow the State to continue to function normally, but also to allow the candidate to conduct the campaign with good conscience.

Civil Society Speaks Out

Of the electoral observer missions, the largest and most well equipped is the one led by the Catholic Church with the aid of the Carter Centre, named after former US president Jimmy Carter. Of the 30 000 observers deployed by the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace, 6300 are charged with reporting in real time on conditions for voting and on the ballot results in 3000 polling stations selected from across the country. According to the Carter Centre the results from these 3000 stations should provide a realistic picture similar to the final result. The other observers use less sophisticated means at their disposal and have access to the VHF radio system in parishes .

On 9 Novemberthe African Association for the Defence of Human Rights in DRC (ASADHO) condemned the suppression of public demonstrations by opposition parties during the election campaign by Congolese National Police. It demanded that police “avoid the excessive use of force against the civilian population or political activists” and to support whichever candidate wins the presidential election”. It welcomed the fact that disciplinary procedures had been implemented against those elements within the PNC {Congolese National Police} who “have violated fundamental rights during public demonstrations” by the Opposition. As for the Republic’s government, the ASADHO recommended that it “abstain from diverting the PNC from its constitutional duties.”

On 10 November the Voice of the Voiceless (VSV) for human rights denounced, in a press release, acts of political intolerance, intimidation and harassment during the election campaign. It cited cases of youths trained in martial arts being used to intimidate groups or opposition party activists. It also protested against “offensive remarks made by certain candidates in the 28 November elections”. The document also mentioned songs used by activists from the Union of Nationalist Federalists of Congo (UNAFEC), the muzzling of the press by men in uniform, and the suppression of the motorcade organised by the UDPS and parties allied to Mbuji-Mayi. According to the VSV these incidents risked compromising the smooth running of the presidential and parliamentary elections. It also demanded that MONUSCO warn those disrupting the electoral process, and those activists guilty of xenophobia. It recommended that the International Criminal Court closely monitor the conduct of the electoral process in DRC.

On 11 November, Human rights organisations in Walikale, in Nord-Kivu, denounced the involvement of Congolese Army (FARDC) officers in the election campaign. According to these non-governmental organisations, sources had been quoted as saying that soldiers in uniform were distributing effigies, money and other material in support of the Head of State Joseph Kabila Kabange. These NGOs stressed that this practice was a violation of electoral law, according to which members of the armed forces and Congolese National Police were apolitical. They are not voters. Moreover, they are not eligible to stand as candidates. This is with the exception of those can prove that either their resignation had been accepted or that they had retired before the deadline for the registration of candidates.

The African Association for the Defence of Human Rights (ASADHO) appealed to all of the candidates in the presidential election to accept the verdict at the ballot box. This was made during a lively press briefing in Kinshasa. The appeal was made in the light of recent events, that may lead to a situation in which the result of the presidential vote is challenged by the losing candidates.

The prevarication by the Independent national election Commission (CENI) in submitting the electoral files for audit as demanded by the opposition parties, the assaults on freedom of expression and demonstration orchestrated by the Congolese National Police (PNC), both before and during the election campaign; the violations of Election law by the candidates in the presidential election, the accusations made against the CENI about the existence of fictitious polling stations, the incitement to violence and intertribal hatred by certain candidates, the acts of violence that characterised the electoral campaign, and the involvement of certain figures in the military in the campaign, are just some of the problems observed before election day.

The ASADHO therefore raised the alarm and pressed the need for responsible engagement by all concerned in the electoral process, the CENI, the political parties, the judiciary, and the people themselves, to maintain peace both during and after the elections .

The 2011 Elections: a defining moment

The elections of 2011 are a defining moment in the history of the DRC as well as for Africa and the world. On account of its geo-strategic position, the DRC was at one time at the centre of the power struggle between East and West at the height of the Cold War. In that era the DRC was already at the centre of international power struggles. It remains so with the “wars of conquest of economic space” in Africa for the control of mineral wealth (coltan, cassiterite, gold, diamonds, nickel, and cobalt), oil as well as methane gas. It is important to remember that the world is living through extremely important times marked by political and economic realignment. Regime change in Iraq, the Arab Spring, the deaths of Bin Laden and Gaddafi, the international economic and financial crises, a debt crisis both in Europe and in the US, are so many precursors of the decline of capitalism. These are the major developments that are affecting all of the countries of the world.

Today only Africa possesses the necessary resources to revive the world economy. Besides minerals, Africa has forests, but above all water. It is this latter resource that could trigger the next World War. All of this could be lost to the Democratic Republic of Congo which has 70% of the African forest, and the second largest river in the world, after the Amazon in Brazil.

Behind all of this lies a vast conspiracy of balkanisation of the DRC. Flitting from one initiative to another, “the Common Market of the Great Lakes”, to name only one planned initiative, to “exploit the wealth of the Congo for the common good” will precipitate this balkanisation in the economic sphere to begin with, and in public administration thereafter.

But if up to now the people of Congo have resisted all of these diabolical conspiracies, the conspirators have not yet thrown in the towel. Quite on the contrary, they are in the process of changing tactics and ground to realise this same objective: balkanise the DRC in order to take control of its riches.

This is why the FDLR {Democratic force for the Liberation of Rwanda}, the LRA {Lord’s Resistance Army}, and the ADL {The Rwandan Association for the Defense of the Rights of the Person and Public Liberties}, these negative forces from Rwanda and Uganda are so thick skinned. In reality, the regular armies of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan, Central Africa, the United Nations, and now the Americans have never had a single mission to combat these forces, to disarm and repatriate them, because these are the pawns, who fund the commercial operations of the pariah states that support the balkanisation conspiracy in the DRC.

These elections are there one of those opportunities to promote that covert plan. That is to say. Push the Congolese into committing ill-judged acts with chaotic elections before noting “their inability to behave responsibly and run their own country.” As Africa cannot remain eternally unstable because the DRC is permanently unstable, the makers of war and peace will decide the result.

It is up to the people of Congo, especially the political class, to take heed of the evidence that imperils the very existence of a State and a nation: the DRC. The 2011 elections offer a great opportunity to deliver an effective response and to protect national sovereignty .

In answer to the question: “after the Arab spring that removed three North African presidents, is it possible that there will be a Congolese Autumn that will carry off Joseph Kabila?” Jean-Paul Mopo Kobanda, researcher and political analyst replied:

“A revolution is not in the offing, but the ‘ingredients’ are often the same as are present in the DRC: hunger, poverty, the concentration of power in the hands of a single individual, the muzzling of the press, the violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms, intolerance and suppression of dissent, etc. Of the five construction projects promised by Joseph Kabila, not one has been accomplished.

The record of the outgoing government is very negative: denial of freedoms and basic rights, the assassination of numerous journalists, opponents and human rights activists, hijacking of governorates gained by opposition parties through the corruption of elected representatives, the inability of the government to build an economy that improves employment opportunities, increase in poverty and recurrent insecurity. The people of Congo aspire to real political change that will directly affect their daily lives. In this context there is a real possibility of voting Kabila out, which will certainly be to the advantage of Tshisekedi. The people may be tempted therefore not to allow a victory to be stolen, if the one who is proclaimed the winner is not the one they voted for.”

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This English translation has been possible thanks to the project Mondo Lingua: Free translation of websites for NGOs and non-profit-making organisations. A project managed by Mondo Services. Translator: Scott Hunter