Reply To: Congo Paparazi

[Congo]

The problem of the organization of elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this continent, creates more a gap between the new enlarged Majority and the radical wing of the Opposition. What are the stumbling blocks that will not allow the millions of Congolese to go to the polls by the end of December 2017 as one of two camps in the antipodes? Indeed, the presidential mobility and its allies support the thesis that objectively, it is no longer possible to hold ballots at this deadline set by the New Year’s Eve. Several reasons are put forward by this political camp to business.

First, there is insecurity in the Greater Kasai where the Kamuina Nsapu nebula prevents the deployment of personnel as well as material from the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) for the enrollment of voters, Like other parts of Congolese territory. Moreover, a new rebellion has just been declared in North Kivu, according to a declaration of the Governor of that province. This insecurity can serve as an apology for separatism and discrimination.

The Enlarged Majority also highlights the absence of essential laws, the electoral law and the law on the distribution of seats, which delay the electoral process. It also draws the public’s attention to a gap in terms of institutional architecture. In other words, the delay in setting up the National Council for Monitoring the Agreement and the electoral process (CNSA) and especially in the drafting of the organic law establishing and operating this new institution following the political negotiations of the Center interdiocesan.

Other pitfalls such as the paralysis of the small territorial, the absence of timetable and electoral register, the sequence of the ballots, also contribute to the blocking of the machine.

On the other hand, the radicalized wing of the Opposition embodied by the so-called Limete Rally requires the immediate implementation of the December 31 agreement which provides for the presidential election coupled with the national and provincial legislative elections before the end of the year In progress. These opponents also call for elections under the aegis of the United Nations. They threaten to beat a macadam towards the end of July if the enrollment of the voters does not end within this deadline. It is practically an insurrectional scheme which, curiously, has the support of an important fringe of the international community, especially the Western powers. On another note, this wing of the Rally pounded on the lapse of the Agreement of the New Year’s Eve after December 31, 2017.

As a result, the electoral process’s mortgage as well as brawls are on the horizon. Who will benefit from a new blood shed in the DRC? Wait and see. Peace at all costs!