DR Congo tense as election results emerge - Yahoo! News: "KINSHASA (AFP) - Partial legislative election results released in theWhy am I not surprised? More on this as soon as I have a better internet connection.
Democratic Republic of Congo gave parties loyal to President Joseph Kabila a commanding lead, but allegations of voting fraud forced a three-day delay in the final count.
The 31-party Alliance of the Presidential Majority, headed by the 35-year-old president, gained 169 out of the 341 parliamentary seats for which results have so far been counted, according to the results published on the electoral commission's website and added together by AFP.
The Rally of Congolese Nationalists (Renaco), the opposition bloc supporting Kabila's main rival Jean-Pierre Bemba, was in second place with 47 seats.
The national assembly holds 500 seats altogether.
Meanwhile full provisional results, scheduled to be released Monday, were postponed to Thursday after 10 officials were detained on suspicion of forging results in favour of the opposition Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), independent electoral commission (CIE) official Dieudonne Mirimo said.
'This led the CIE to undertake a re-checking of the data' for Kinshasa, he said. The RCD is the party of one of the country's four vice-presidents, Azarias Ruberwa."
More also on apparent new developments in the inquiry over the causes of the events in Kinshasa last week...
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Interesting. The AFP article says that Kabila's alliance has taken 49 percent of the first 341 seats, while a Reuters article based on the same number of seats gave the Kabila camp about 45 percent. Maybe there's some doubt as to which parties and independents beyond the original 30 are part of the coalition.
Anyway, the final provisional results are now up on the CEI site. As near as I can tell, the AMP has about 200 seats and RENACO somewhere around 120. Gizenga cleaned up in Bandundu and finished with 34 seats.
One more question that I haven't been able to find the answer to anywhere: will the provincial elections be based on the old provinces or the new ones?
I believe that it is definitely between 45 and 49%. Thank you for letting us know. I will write more about this later today.
Peace!
I've posted some further analysis at my place and would welcome any criticism.
I've just seen this on allAfrica - no trace of it anywhere else so far:
Appeal from the DRC Coalition in Washington
Hey Fred,
Re. Appeal from DRC coalition: I know the groups talked about taking full page ads out in papers like NYT, WSJ, etc in the USA. I suggested that they also put it in papers in Europe (given the involvement of EUFOR, European Union, etc) and the DRC. I don't know what they decided.
Personally I would rather they had come out with a statement last year encouraging the international community to work with the Congolese people on ensuring that the electoral process was TRULY democatric, transparent and ALL-INCLUSIVE while there was still a chance to make it so!
S2125 DRC Relief, Recovery, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act of 2006 is on this Wednesday’s (September 13, 2006) agenda of the OPEN US House of Representatives Committee on International Relations.
It would be great if those who live in and around DC could attend the meeting (details below). The doors to the meeting room are open 15 minutes before the beginning of the meeting at 10:30 am on September 13, 2006.
FULL COMMITTEE MEETING NOTICE
Committee on International Relations
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515-0128
(202) 225-5021
Sent: September 12, 2006
TO: MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
You are respectfully requested to attend an OPEN meeting of the Committee on International Relations, to be held in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building, for the purpose of marking up the following legislation:
DATE: Wednesday, September 13, 2006
TIME: 10:30 a.m.
MARKUP OF:
H.R. 611, Haiti Economic and Infrastructure Reconstruction Act;
H.R. 1476, Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship Program Trust Fund Enhancement Act of 2005;
H.R. 1996, Coral Reef and Coastal Marine Conservation Act of 2005;
H.R. 5805, North Korea Nonproliferation Act of 2006;
H.R. 5966, Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2006;
H.R. ____, State Authorities;
H. Res. 415, Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Socialist Republic of Vietnam needs to do more to resolve claims for confiscated real and personal property, and for other purposes;
H. Res. 622, To recognize and honor the Filipino World War II veterans for their defense of democratic ideals and their important contribution to the outcome of World War II;
H. Res. 723, Calling on the President to take immediate steps to help improve the security situation in Darfur, Sudan, with a specific emphasis on civilian protection;
H. Res. 759, Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Government of Japan should formally acknowledge and accept responsibility for its sexual enslavement of young women, known to the world as "comfort women", during its colonial occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands from the 1930s through the duration of World War II, and for other purposes;
H. Res. 940, Recognizing the 185th anniversary of the independence of Peru on July 28, 2006;
H. Res. 942, Recognizing the centennial anniversary on August 5, 2006, of the Iranian constitution of 1906;
H. Res. 965, Commending the people of Montenegro on the conduct of the referendum on independence, welcoming United States recognition of the sovereignty and independence of the Republic of Montenegro, and welcoming Montenegrin membership in the United Nations and other international organizations;
H. Res. 992, Urging the President to appoint a Presidential Special Envoy for Sudan;
H. Con. Res. 317, Requesting the President to issue a proclamation annually calling upon the people of the United States to observe Global Family Day, One Day of Peace and Sharing, and for other purposes;
H. Con. Res. 415, Condemning the repression of the Iranian Baha’i community and calling for the emancipation of Iranian Baha’is;
S. 2125, Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Recovery, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act of 2006;
S. 3836, United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy Reauthorization Act of 2006.
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