presidential election results by CENI.
The opposition, belatedly rallied around Etienne Tshisekedi, seems to
have found another wrong tree to bark. It now demands that CENI
produce, alongside the provisional results, the "real affidavits"
("procès-verbaux" or "PV") by polling station underlying those
numbers.
The opposition is backed in this demand by Western diplomatic missions
accredited to Kinshasa.
Some diplomats even appear to have now considerably watered down their
initial sweeping endorsement of CENI in the wake of the 28 November
general elections.
One Western diplomat told me today that in Katanga credible
pre-electoral projections of Tshisekedi's score might have been
deflated by a whopping 10%! To which I retorted that even if the 10%
was given to Tshisekedi, there's just no way the Sphinx of Limete
would clamber out of the abyss he's dug himself into.
The same diplomat predicted that CENI might end up being hard put to
come up with the actual affidavits of legislative elections from the
country's interior!
Last Thursday, the diplomat visited CENI national center at FIKIN in
Lemba Commune (that night, it rained cats and dogs over Kinshasa--a
deluge that lasted through Friday morning). The diplomat described the
place as being in a state of near pandemonium, and worried that
cardboard boxes (containing affidavits and other documents related to
legislative election from the interior) scattered helter-skelter in
the warehouse might have been damaged beyond recovery by the rain!
Well, we aren't going to jump the gun, are we? This is only a wild
guess...
But, what's more chilling was the diplomat'account of the situation on
the ground in northern Katanga. In and around Kalemie, for instance,
the diplomat described what appears to be a low-intensity ethnic
cleansing between UDPS and Kyungu's UNAFEC--with pro-Kyungu partisans
marking with a black cross the doors of Luba and UDPS members'
residences!
***
Though there were pedestrians and cars downtown today, the city's
economic and administrative pulse has almost ground to a halt. The
headline of one of the few opposition newspapers still appearing
screamed: "Ville morte!" (ghost city). (Major pro-Tshisekedi
papers--like the daily "Le Phare"--have been shut down for fuelling
anti-CENI rhetoric.)
There are no longer "wewas" (motorcycle cabbies) roaming thoroughfares
with 3 passengers on their back seats. Two days ago, Kinshasa Gov
André Kimbuta issued a city ordinance banning motorcycle taxis from
major arteries for the danger they represent to the safety of other
commuters and their own! Stiff penalties--including the seizure of the
offending bikes--have already been meted out. But Radio-Trottoir
doesn't buy the rationale of public safety put forth by the governor.
Kinois claim that most "wewas," who are nearly all Luba tribesmen,
were staunch supporters of Tshitshi during the electoral campaign. And
the gobernatorial ordinance is a retributive act in the guise of
public safety and the well-being of "wewas." But by and large Kinois
could live without "wewas" who are universally blamed for reckless
bike riding and DUI...
Ordinarily, a taxi takes in 4 fares (1 on the passenger seat by the
driver, 3 in the back seat). But I rode today in grand style--from
Grand Hotel to Place Victoire, I was the lone passenger of a dejected
cabbie!
"Fucking guys ought to get over with it already," he scowled.
"Jesus-Mary-Joseph! We alreadly know the name of the one the Whites
have chosen for us! Let's move on! How am I supposed to scrape a
living with this! These elections are fucking stupid, I tell you!"
He then went on to tell me that a Kimbanguist church was torched last
night in the Kimbanseke Commune where he lives--and a morgue and a
school operated by the same church were ransacked beyond recognition.
"It's not like they're looting or taking anything away. They just
trash the place!"
(Well, the Kimbanguists have been busy peddling a so-called prophecy
by Prophet Simon Kimbangu prophesying that the 4th DRC
president--Kabila--would be a Moses figure who would lead the
Congolese people from the desert of ruins to the elysian pastures of
paradisiacal prosperity! Small wonder Kimbanguists are now at the
receiving end of the wrath of pro-Tshitshi "informal sovereigns" and
"doppelganger anticitizens.")
With the left arm out and up and the hand tracing a circle in the air
to tell prospective fares we were headed to Victoire trafic circle,
the disgruntled cabby then donned the mantle of an academic political
theorist.
According to the cabdriver, this is no country for elections! In fact,
the political system has got to be entirely overhauled, he proclaimed.
Not into like the extreme "illiberal democracy" of Rwanda, mind you!
But into some political formation akin to the government of a
science-fiction intergalactic confederacy!
Each one of the 400-odd tribal groups appoint or elect one delegate,
still according to the taxi driver. At the provincial level, tribal
delegates then go through a vote to select one delegate of the
province. After which, the 11 provincial delegates come to Kin to form
the ruling council of the republic--with one of the council members
acting as a figurehead and the others retaining veto and impeachment
powers. I got a name for this futuristic DRC: the Tribal Republic of
the Congo!
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