DR Congo: Countdown to the Polls

The people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are set to get their first chance in 41 years, to participate in the closest thing to free and fair elections as are possible within the Congolese context. The first step of this process will be made on December 18, with the country-wide referendum on the new Draft Constitution. The anticipation is so extremely dense among all Congolese people, who can grasp the sheer magnitude of this process for the future of the country, is almost physically palpable. Unfortunately, so is the uneasiness of the current political class.

In an article from Congo and Great Lakes newspaper Le Soft International, the veteran Professor Triphon Kin Kiey Mulumba, Journalist and erudite - although sempiternally chameleonic politcally, exposes the latest of the numerous crises and tribulations.

With the elections coming up, Congolese politicians (particularly those that belong to the "all-inclusive" and cohabitational institutions, resulting from the negotiations to end the devastating Congo War in 2002) have had to come to terms with the fact that in purely democratic conditions, they did not have any true basis to claim an elected position: no tangible basis, no constituency, and no real platform. That is if we exclude the long-standing aim of entertaining what in Congo they call alimentary political parties, which essentially consist of the leader and a handful of founding members. These parties are often mini-moneymaking-machines, with the sole aim to provide resources to their leaders' polygastric appetites...

These are definitely not the kind of leadership material that can garter the votes - not legitimately anyway. Consequently, all actors in the transitional institutions, whose positions will be contested in the future elections,have been looking for excuses to extend the transitional period, and maintain their very advantageous benefits. Nevertheless, the very uncharacteristically strong voice of the International Community in recent days have made the prospect of extending the transition very slim.

So the politicians... TERRIFIED!! This thing may actually come to pass!!! What are we going to do?? What will hapen when the people finds out all the money we have been stealing?? In addition with these fears, the politicians have to deal with their inherent disagreements. In the crisis described in the Soft, the troubled party is President Kabila's party, PPRD. At a crucial moment in the country, they finally decided to take a political stand on matter of principles: the murder of the first President Kabila. As part of the new legislation, ageneral amnesty for the War period was mandated by the 2002 agreements. All the other parties wanted this amnesty to include the convicted muderers of President Kabila. Kabila's party held strong for 2 years, then finally decided to stage a walkout in Parliament. The law passed without them, with 90%+ of the votes... needless to say, they are not very happy.

But having been in power - in its present formation - for 4-5 years, the PPRD does have some tangible basis. So do, theoretically, the former rebel groups that occupied the North and East for 5 years, and still maintain much of the control there. The only 2 non-belligerent parties to have any claim to natioanl recognition are the MPR (Mobutu's former state-party, but they are divided), and the sempiternal opposition party, the UDPS of Mr Etienne Tshisekedi. Officially however, the UDPS refused to participate in the polls... but they seem to realize that it would be am IMMENSE mistake, and the surest way to miss the train of history, however impefect.

The situation is almost unprecedented for the political class, with the exception of those Forefathers that are still alive, like Sen. Cleophas Kamitatu Massamba, who is incidentally the father of current National Assembly Speaker Olivier Kamitatu Etsou. Business as usual seems for the first time, not to be the game. The primary sovereign, the people, may actually BE the sovereign. And they may hold them accountable for 41 years of chaos. No more villas, no more limos, no more helicopter rides, or Congo Air Command 1 (that's Congo's Air Force 1, also known as Hewa Bora) rides... and maybe jail!!!! They are SCARED....



Referendum D-Day - 16.

(To be continued)

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