Democratic Republic of Congo braces for polls

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By Juakali Kambale
Zimbabwe Herald

AT LEAST five candidates have registered to contest the
presidency of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in
elections set for April while about 300 political parties are
expected to participate in the polls.

As preparations for the DRC’s first democratic elections in
over 40 years swing into gear, the country’s interior
ministry announced that it has so far registered some 300
political parties keen on taking part in the polls.

According to the interior ministry, voting will be split into
three, with local government elections taking place in March,
and parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for
April, with a presidential run-off in June, if necessary.

The starting date for the national elections has been set as
April 29, and the process is expected to take a minimum of
four days.

So far nomination papers have been received from presidential
candidates for the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD),
Federalist Christian Democracy (FCD), Movement for the
Liberation of Congo (MLC), Rally for Democracy and Social
Progress (RDSP) and an independent woman candidate.

A lawyer by profession, Azarias Ruberwa has registered to
contest the presidency on an RCD ticket. He is one of the
four vice-presidents in the transitional government headed by
President Joseph Kabila.

A Tutsi-Banyamulenga who hails from South Kivu province,
Ruberwa is aligned to the Rwandese government, which backed
his party during the bitter four-year civil war that also
sucked in Uganda and three Southern African Development
Community (Sadc) countries opposed to a change of government
by force.

The three Sadc countries that came to the aid of the DRC
government were Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

The other candidate who has filed papers with the Independent
Electoral Commission (IEC) is 58-year-old Pierre Pay-Pay wa
Syakassighe, who has been campaigning for "rational"
leadership of the DRC. He wants the Congolese to give a
chance to those with experience to run the affairs of the
country.

He is a former governor of the Central Bank of the DRC and
also served as minister of economics and finance under the
late President Mobutu Sese Seko.

Pierre Pay-Pay wa Syakassighe hails from North Kivu province
in eastern DRC.

He announced his candidature for the position of president in
December 2005 and is regarded as the strongest challenger to
Kabila because of his vast experience in government and
access to resources.

His party, the FCD, has formed a coalition with 17 other
parties and they will contest the election under the banner
of the Coalition of Congolese Democrats (Codeco).

The MLC will be represented by its leader in the presidential
race, 43-year-old Jean-Pierre Bemba. A son-in-law of the late
Mobutu, Bemba is another one of DRC’s vice-presidents and is
responsible for the economic and finance portfolio.

Veteran politician Etienne Tshisekedi (75) will also hope to
use his vast experience to sway the vote in his favour. He
announced his intention to contest the polls on January 2
after more than two years of boycotting the peace process.

His RDSP party is popular in Kinshasa and in the eastern and
western Kasai provinces.

He had previously campaigned against the electoral process
but failed to garner support, and in December the Congolese
voters overwhelmingly endorsed the holding of elections under
a new constitution.

There is so far a single female candidate for the presidency.
She is Justine Kasavubu, daughter of the first post-
independence president, Joseph Kasavubu.

She has served as a minister for civil administration and was
ambassador to Belgium during the previous administration of
Joseph Kabila’s father, Laurent Kabila.

The incumbent president’s People’s Party for Reconstruction
and Democracy (PPRD) is yet to choose a candidate and has not
set a date for primary elections, although Kabila is expected
to get his party’s nomination.

Kabila (35) is widely tipped to win the national election
should he win his party’s ticket. He is credited with
engineering the current peace that prevails in the country.
He has led the DRC since the death of his father in February
2001.

The new constitution limits the powers of the president,
gives the country’s regions more autonomy and strengthens the
judicial system. The political system will now be
decentralised, with provincial administrations responsible
for local decision-making and controlling 40 percent of
public funds. The number of provinces has been increased from
11 to 26. The presidential tenure is now limited to two five-
year terms while the minimum age of the presidential
candidates has been reduced from 45 to 30 years.

The elected president nominates a prime minister from the
parliamentary majority. —

www.sardc.net.