DRC Elections 2011 Watch: 1) CENI confers with presidential candidates in the presence of Gov Bill Richardson and SRSG Roger Meece; 2) Kabila launches electoral campaign in Kindu; 3) UDPS kicks off presidential and legislative campaigns in Kinshasa; 4) From South Africa Tshisekedi quashes rumor of failing health; and 5) CENI takes pro-Tshisekedi opposition leaders around and around in circles

1) CENI confers with presidential candidates in the presence of Bill Richardson and SRSG Roger Meece

Governor Bill Richardson
Kinshasa, Sunday, October 30
CENI Headquarters
(Credits)

On Sunday, October 30, CENI board members, led by Rev Daniel Ngoy Mulunda, conferred with 5 presidential candidates and the representatives of the remaining 6 other candidates at CENI headquarters in the presence of Governor Bill Richardson, who was in Kinshasa at the “invitation of the National Democratic Institute (NDI),” Ambassador Roger Meece, UN Special Representative of the Secretary General and MONUSCO Mission Head, as well as a few other ambassadors accredited to Kinshasa.

The security of the presidential candidates, the prevention of election-related violence, the post-electoral dialogue, and the “level playing field” for all candidates were among the items on the agenda.

Presidential candidate Vital Kamerhe bemoaned the fact that there are billboards of the incumbent president on public buildings; that some governors, government ministers and managers of public companies and parastatals are vigorously campaigning for Kabila—occurrences that give the lie to the level playing field CENI is advocating.

“We say that they are using the means of the state in their position [for political gains],” Kamerhe told the press after the meeting. “This sets us off balance.”
Answering questions posed by members of the media at the close of the meeting, Bill Richardson stated:

“I think that CENI has just explained to all presidential candidates the work it’s doing to ensure that elections are held on November 28. I have a good history with your country and I love this country.  I’m expecting to see free and democratic elections held on November 28” (my retranslation from the French translation).

Governor Richardson also said he had released a statement condemning gender-based violence, by which he expects all the presidential candidates to abide.


2) Kabila launches electoral campaign in Kindu, provincial capital of Maniema

In the afternoon of Sunday, October 30, with his wife Olive Lembe by his side, Joseph Kabila formally launched his electoral campaign in Kindu, in the Maniema Province, with a long speech in Swahili in front of thousands of his supporters. According to Radio Okapi, “he walked 5 km on foot [from the airport] to get downtown, where he launched his electoral campaign.”

Why Kabila chose to launch his campaign in the province with the lowest number of registered voters is a mystery to political analysts and observers (Maniema has only 874,809 registered voters out of the 32,024,640 officially registered nationwide).

But the reasons for the choice of Maniema are quite obvious to me: 1) the First Lady’s mother is from Maniema; 2) Many pro-Kabila stalwarts are from Maniema (including the Foreign Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba and DRC Ambassador to London Barnabé Kikaya bin Karubi); and, last and not least, 3) Maniema is a showcase of some of Kabila’s achievements: the construction of a university in Kindu to be inaugurated today and on-going electrification and roadway projects.

Kabila also promised Kindu inhabitants that their city would soon be the headquarters of SNCC (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer du Congo), the railroad company now headquartered in Lubumbashi, Katanga. He finally urged the throng of his supporters to vote “not 80%, but 90% to 100% for Candidate Number 3.”

3) UDPS kicks off presidential and legislative campaigns in Kinshasa

Still on Sunday, UDPS kicked off its presidential and legislative campaigns with a long motorized procession from its headquarters in Limete quarter of Kingabwa Commune to the Stade Tata Raphaël, in the Kalamu Commune, the other big soccer stadium of Kinshasa.

At the stadium, UDPS secretary general Jacquemain Shabani gave a rousing speech to UDPS supporters in which he announced that UDPS will sign the Code of Conduct on Thursday, November 3—an announcement that was somehow contradicted in the evening by Etienne Tshisekedi, who is in South Africa, in a phone interview in Lingala with RLTV (see next section).

4) From South Africa, Tshisekedi quashes rumors of failing health

A view of Place Victoire, Kalamu Commune
A hub and origin point of rumors
Photo: Alex Engwete

In a phone interview in Lingala with Eliezer Ntambwe on pro-UDPS RLTV, Etienne Tshisekedi, who was speaking from South Africa (probably Johannesburg), quashed rumors of his failing health and announced he’d be returning to the DRC either tomorrow Tuesday, or on Wednesday.

It’s been over a month and a half or more since Tshisekedi had left the country for a North American and European tour. About two weeks ago, pro-Tshisekedi politicians had announced that their leader would soon return to the DRC via South Africa, with Kisangani as entry point. Well, since the electoral campaign kick-off, Tshisekedi had been MIA.

As the Congolese grapevine of Radio-Trottoir doesn’t allow that kind of information limbo, fresh updates on Tshisekedi’s health bulletin were available at street corners and major squares of the Congolese capital every half-hour—especially at Place Victoire, one of Kinshasa hubs and origin point of many rumors. One rumor alleged that Tshisekedi suffered a stroke and was in a vegetative state in a Johannesburg hospital. The rumor went on to say that UDPS was keeping mum on Tshisekedi’s health condition to allow his son, Félix, an MP candidate in Oriental Kasai Province, to run the country in the stead of his father in the event that the latter wins the election!

With Tshisekedi’s phone interview, all these rumors have now been dispelled, to the great relief of UDPS supporters. Tshisekedi announced he has a jet, a DC-3, and a helicopter for his campaign. He also confirmed he’d first land in the Orientale Province before proceeding to the Kivus and Maniema for his eastern campaign. He would then return to Kinshasa before going to Bas-Congo, Bandundu, and both Kasai provinces.

Asked about CENI’s Code of Conduct, Tshisekedi, contradicting UDPS secretary general Jacquemain Shabani, said there was no way UDPS would sign it while its demands are not satisfactorily answered by the electoral commission. Among the conditions laid down by UDPS and its allies are the release of arrested demonstrators (not in the purview of CENI) and the audit of the central server of the electoral commission (on the latter, see next section).

5) CENI takes pro-Tshisekedi opposition leaders around and around in circles

According to pro-Tshisekedi opposition leaders, CENI is taking them around and around in circles without any solution in sight. At times, they claim, CENI would invite them at its headquarters and then leave them hang. Sometimes, pro-Kabila leaders without apparently any knowledge of the contention would show up to represent the MP (Majorité Présidentielle), and then the meeting would hinge on explaining to them again and again what the terms of reference of the opposition are all about.

These leaders are fed up and accuse CENI of using a “wear-them-out” tactics and fear that the audit of the central server might never see the light of day. It’s still unclear what response these leaders envisage if the much-clamored-for audit never happens.

*

In an unrelated development, Congo Média Channel (CMC) owned by Kabila’s ex-spokesman Kudura Kasongo and his wife, MP Pascaline Kudura, is back on air, apparently broadcasting from another location.

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To y'all: Help me unlock a BB 8310

This is urgent. I need the code (maybe instructions as well, though I am quite certain of having mastered the necessary steps) for unlocking a Blackberry 8310. The IMEI number is the following: 359316.01.031396.0

Please send the correspondance including the code to my email: alexengwete@gmail.com

I got a Samsung Infuse android I was able to unlock while still in DC.  But the problem with it is that it's bleeding me dry down here, depleting my prepaid phone credits by updating apps. I don't want Kinois "unlocking" services to touch my phone and they do charge $20 for that anyway! So, please..

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: CENI Chairman Rev Daniel Ngoy Mulunda holds a live televised press briefing in Lingala

In the evening of Thursday, October 20, Rev Daniel Ngoy Mulunda, chair of the national independent electoral commission, held a live televised press briefing in Lingala in the conference hall of CENI headquarters on Boulevard du 30 Juin--a stone's throw from the US Kinshasa Embassy and Consulate.

Among the members of the press corps who interviewed Rev Mulunda was reporter Jules "Zulu" Bulembi of Jean-Pierre Bemba's "Canal Congo TV" (CCTV).

The questions included, besides a short autobiography Rev Mulunda was asked to sketch for the viewers, precise questions about the calendar of the elections; the contentious issues of the lower number of registered voters in Kinshasa as compared to Katanga Province; the access to CENI's central server and the "cartography" of the 62,000 countrywide polling stations (issues over which UDPS continues to hold weekly demos); the registration of minors, security forces personnel and foreigners; as well as the last minute change in outsourcing the production of ballot boxes from Germany to China and the staggering electoral budget of more than $1b.

Rev Mulunda explained that CEI (Commission Electorale Indépendante), the now-defunct transitional body that had organized the 2006 elections had drawn an electoral calendar based on the "uncoupling" of legislative and presidential elections--with the latter to be held this year, whereas the former in January 2012. This calendar was being debated in November of last year in Lubumbashi by the members of the newly-appointed electoral body and CENI experts when calls issuing from the electoral class in Kinshasa made perfectly clear that politicos were rejecting flat out any notion of "uncoupling" presidential and legistative elections.

Upon their return to Kinshasa, CENI board members made the round of various leaders' residences and headquarters (including UDPS' Etienne Tshisekedi's and PALU's Antoine Gizenga's). All these leaders were unanimous in their rejection of the uncoupling of the legislative and presidential elections, arguing for instance that beyond December 6, the incumbent would have exceeded his constitutional mandate.

Fortunately, CENI experts had developed a "Plan-B" for "coupling" both elections. And this plan was the new calendar CENI announced in April. But by "throwing a rope around our neck," Rev Mulunda argued, the politicians weren't really expecting to see CENI pull off this challenge. Politicians' glaring unpreparedness was evinced in the way they only filed their candidacies in mass numbers at the last minute. This unpreparedness also showed in the unprofessional presentation of a large number of dossiers--as if some MP candidates were "asleep over their computer keyboards" while writing them!  Rev Mulunda revealed that he even violated the law "for the sake of national concord" so as to accomodate UDPS MP candidates, most of whom filed their candidacies past the legal deadline!

Rev insisted on several occasions in the interview that CENI is prepared and ready to organize general elections on November 28.

As regards the illegal registration of minors, security forces personnel, and even in some instances foreign nationals, Rev Mulunda said he'd be a liar and a crook if he were to deny that such irregularities did take place. But he said that political parties, who failed to deploy observers in 99% of the 10,000 registration stations, shared the blame. Besides, as the electoral registers were immediately posted in front of the registration stations, it was up to local communities, who knew their members, to denounce fraudsters to local authorities. Even then, these irregularities were minimal. (This claim of list posting is strange as what was actually posted was the tally of registered voters; but there were no follow-up questions.) For example, in cases of irregularities denounced by the opposition in Kalemie and Manono in Katanga, an investigative team comprising MONUSCO, Radio Okapi, UNICEF and the Congolese police went in and reported back that there was nothing to substantiate those irregularities.

Regarding the higher number of registered voters in Katanga Province in comparison with the lower number of them in the city-province of Kinshasa, Rev Mulunda directed the journos to look at the 2006 registration numbers as initial reference. As a matter-of-fact, in 2006, Katanga had 3,500,000 registered voters, and Kinshasa 2,900,000. What's more, at the start of the revision of the electoral register, Rev Mulunda and CENI met with 700 Kinshasa leaders (from governor, provincial ministers, down to quarters' chieftains) to urge them to motivate citizens in their respective constiuencies to register to vote. Unfortunately, said Rev Mulunda, Kinshasa authorities didn't campaign for voters' registration. Worse, they even impeded it by charging, for instance, 1,000 Congolese Francs for IDs needed for registration! By contrast, in Katanga and in Equateur (the second highest ranking province in number of voters registered), politicians across the political spectrum vigorously campaigned to maximize their constituents' participation in voters' registration. The city-province of Kinshasa has therefore its own politicians to blame for the lower number of registered voters than Katanga Province.

Rev Mulunda said that he was baffled by UDPS leaders' insistence to access CENI's central server, which, after voters' registration and the clean-out of the register, has pretty much turned into an empty shell: votes will be manually tallied and results immediately posted at each polling station. These results will then be compiled by provincial centers, which in turn will send them to CENI Kinshasa headquarters.

Be that as it may, said Rev Mulunda, CENI can open its central server to political parties--again in violation of the law that has the electoral commission as an independent body. CENI has however laid down a number of conditions for this access to its central server. Chief among those was that politicians from both the opposition and the ruling majority have to work within a "framework of consultation" comprising 5 representatives from each camp. Rev Mulunda was mystified to see that only UDPS politicians, including Valentin Mubake (Tshisekedi's political advisor)--and not the opposition's IT experts--are on the opposition list of auditors of CENI. As the opposition and the ruling majority have failed to come together within this "framework of consultation," Rev Mulunda rules out opening the central server to just one political group.

UDPS leaders have also been vocal in their demand for the publication by CENI of the "cartography" of polling stations, that is, their precise location. Rev Mulunda said that more than 140 scouting missions were deployed nationwide by CENI to identify locations for the 62,000 polling stations--schools, government buildings, or grounds where tents could be set up, etc. These scouting missions started returning this past week, and CENI technicians are working to design the polling stations' "cartography," which will soon be published. Rev Mulunda also revealed that when this mapping work will be completed, the "cartography" will have the following mobile phone interactive component: by sending an SMS with a voter's registration number, the location of the polling station will automatically be obtained.

Rev Mulunda also defused the controversy that erupted recently over the outsourcing of the production of ballot boxes from Germany to China. Some politicians and analysts (some, like the daily L'Avenir, close to pro-Kabila political coalition) feared that this change of production venue this late in the game could mean that the elections could be postponed.

Rev Mulunda forcefully repeated that elections will be held on November 28 and that the production of ballot boxes was being carried out according to plan and schedule.

He explained that CENI needs 3 ballot boxes for each one of the 62,000 polling stations--that is 186,000 ballot boxes. This means that the contractor has to produce between 800 and 900 ballot boxes a day.

At the outset, CENI wanted to award this contract to a local company. CENI thus initiated talks with the Kinshasa-based company "Plastica" that produces plastic chairs and other plastic appliances. But five days after this initial contact, "Plastica" went back to CENI to turn down the offer due to the company's inability to produce that number of ballot boxes within the required time frame.

CENI then went shopping for a contractor, first in Nairobi, then finally to South Africa, where it found a company able to produce that number of ballot boxes. The South African contractor has a German partner who can produce ballot boxes according to CENI and international standards. But producing that great number of ballot boxes on such short notice means working around the clock even on weekends--which is a non-starter in a European Union country where labor regulations are stringent. CENI's South African contractor had therefore to find a reliable subcontractor in China, where labor regulations are quasi nonexistent. Ballot boxes will soon arrive and be deployed countrywide.

Rev Mulunda reassured his interviewers and the viewers that CENI has secured its budget for this electoral cycle: 2 billion and 100,000 dollars. But this money is by no means to be solely consumed by the November general elections, whose budget is around $251m (I wonder whether Rev Mulunda was also factoring in MONUSCO's logistical contribution). The remaining money in the budget will fund provincial and local elections slated for 2012 and 2013.

Rev Mulunda was finally asked why CENI has recently upgraded its headquarters with iron fences and concertina, turning it into a fortress. He said that CENI is and should be an "inviolable institution." But at the start of UDPS demos in July, gas cans and Molotov cocktails were found in trash bins inside CENI headquarters. "You can't control masses," he claimed he'd warned UDPS leaders. CENI board members had accepted to serve their country but not to be its martyrs, he pleaded. "We do want to be alive" at the end of the process, he added in order to justify the security upgrade at CENI heaquarters.

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Former Kabila's sposkeman Kudura Kasongo: Deputy Premier Adolphe Lumanu "has ordered security services to bump me off"

In a telephone interview with Radio Top-Congo, Kudura Kasongo, erstwhile Kabila's spokesman and currently one of presidential candidate Vital Kamerhe's spokespeople, claimed today that Deputy Premier Adolphe Lumanu "has ordered security forces to bump me off." Contacted by phone by Radio Top-Congo, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister in charge of security Lumanu said he was being driven from N'Djili Airport where he'd just landed after a trip with the president to Kananga for the ground breaking ceremony of the Katende dam, he was therefore not appraised of the eviction incident, and surmised that Kudura might be "off his rocker."

This trading of outlandish accusations and insults on Radio Top-Congo came on the heels of the eviction yesterday morning of the TV station Congo Média Channel (CMC), owned by Kudura Kasongo and his wife MP Jeannine Kudura, for a one-month rent arrear. According to MP Jeannine Kudura, who went to vent her rage yesterday evening in a show of the anti-Kabila RLTV, the eviction was highly unusual and outright illegal as 33 cops were sent in to carry out the eviction order just days after CMC missed rent payment and without the proper 6-month notice allowed to tenants in similar predicament. She said that those police officers roughed her up on the scene of the eviction. The cops also damaged expensive equopment during the eviction.

She went on to say that her family and CMC TV channel have been harrassed ever since her husband has turned into a  thorn in the sides of Kabila and his allies. (Kudura Kasongo has for instance recently blasted Kabila's press briefing as wanting in terms of form--both domestic and external security heads were present as well as two hosts of entertainment TV, an alleged breach of protocol format, according to Kudura--and substance: when Kabila mistakenly told the national audience for example that the magistrates' salary was $1,650 whereas it was actually $400, it showed that the president has either taken leave of his senses or was "disconnected from reality.")

MP Jeannine Kudura listed a string of incidents that proved that CMC is a target of pro-Kabila political forces:

1) in December of last year, the signal of her TV channel CMC was briefly cut off without explanation. And when she called the wife of Communication Minister Lambert Mende to get an explanation about it, Minister Mende himself allegedly told her he'd been ordered to cut off CMC's signal by Kabila in a phone call the president had made to the Minister at 2am--the president was allegedly furious over a political show called "Tout le monde en parle"  (Everyone is talking about it) in which Kudura Kasongo regularly appeared as a political pundit and in which his ex spokesman regularly "insulted" him (MP Jeannine Kudura claimed to have subsequently ordered the cancelation of the show "Tout le monde en parle" on the advice of Communication Minister Mende);

2) Shortly thereafter, a cop CMC had hired to guard its installations was badly beaten at night by unknown intruders who'd warned their victim they'd be coming back;

3) Small businesses, staffed by security personnel, suddenly sprang up in the vicinity of her TV station for obvious surveillance purposes;

and, last not least, 4) Her own son, 21-year-old Kudura Kasongo Jr., was arrested in front of the TV station and spent a night in jail because the channel had run an ad that had the sound track of a censored song! (A false claim, she asserted, as the musician who wrote the song told her the song had never been censored.)

Kudura Kasongo Jr. being an analyst and commentator of international news, MP Jeannine Kudura failed to see the connection between her son and the production department responsible for the ad spots at CMC TV.

Raising her tone to hysterical fever pitch, MP Jeannine Kasongo accused Justice Minister Luzolo Bambi and Deputy Premier Lumanu of having hatched a cabal to bring down her husband. "If they want his downfall," she angrily asked, "why go after my son? Why go after a private enterprise? Why this fear of political debate in this country?"

MP Jeannine Kudura vowed to mobilize women to hold demos to denounce political intolerance and the muzzling of the press.

Earlier yesterday, presidential candidate Vital Kamerhe appeared on the scene of the eviction and denounced the desperate actions of a regime in dire straits.

In today's phone interview, Kudura Kasongo revealed that his family's TV station was a gift given to him by Kabila who now wants to destroy it because he has joined Kamerhe in the opposition. He also said that his TV station's equipment suppliers have just called in his debts and are threatening to repossess all the equipment loaned to him. This means that CMC will be off-air for quite a long time.

***

In an unrelated development, CENI appears to have reached an understanding with UDPS and its allies over the thorny issue of the audit of the central server. It was reported on Saturday that UDPS would be signing CENI's Code of Good Conduct. But on Monday, UDPS secretary general Jacquemain Shabani released a statement stating that as long as 15 of his party members arrested at a demo last week wouldn't be released signing the Code would be out of question!

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: CENI Chairman Rev Daniel Ngoy Mulunda holds a live televised press briefing in Lingala

In the evening of Thursday, October 20, Rev Daniel Ngoy Mulunda, chair of the national independent electoral commission, held a live televised press briefing in Lingala in the conference hall of CENI headquarters on Boulevard du 30 Juin--a stone's throw from the US Kinshasa Embassy and Consulate.

Among the members of the press corps who interviewed Rev Mulunda was reporter Jules "Zulu" Bulembi of Jean-Pierre Bemba's "Canal Congo TV" (CCTV).

The questions included, besides a short autobiography Rev Mulunda was asked to sketch for the viewers, precise questions about the calendar of the elections; the contentious issues of the lower number of registered voters in Kinshasa as compared to Katanga Province; the access to CENI's central server and the "cartography" of the 62,000 countrywide polling stations (issues over which UDPS continues to hold weekly demos); the registration of minors, security forces personnel and foreigners; as well as the last minute change in outsourcing the production of ballot boxes from Germany to China and the staggering electoral budget of more than $1b.

Rev Mulunda explained that CEI (Commission Electorale Indépendante), the now-defunct transitional body that had organized the 2006 elections had drawn an electoral calendar based on the "uncoupling" of legislative and presidential elections--with the latter to be held this year, whereas the former in January 2012. This calendar was being debated in November of last year in Lubumbashi by the members of the newly-appointed electoral body and CENI experts when calls issuing from the electoral class in Kinshasa made perfectly clear that politicos were rejecting flat out any notion of "uncoupling" presidential and legistative elections.

Upon their return to Kinshasa, CENI board members made the round of various leaders' residences and headquarters (including UDPS' Etienne Tshisekedi's and PALU's Antoine Gizenga's). All these leaders were unanimous in their rejection of the uncoupling of the legislative and presidential elections, arguing for instance that beyond December 6, the incumbent would have exceeded his constitutional mandate.

Fortunately, CENI experts had developed a "Plan-B" for "coupling" both elections. And this plan was the new calendar CENI announced in April. But by "throwing a rope around our neck," Rev Mulunda argued, the politicians weren't really expecting to see CENI pull off this challenge. Politicians' glaring unpreparedness was evinced in the way they only filed their candidacies in mass numbers at the last minute. This unpreparedness also showed in the unprofessional presentation of a large number of dossiers--as if some MP candidates were "asleep over their computer keyboards" while writing them!  Rev Mulunda revealed that he even violated the law "for the sake of national concord" so as to accomodate UDPS MP candidates, most of whom filed their candidacies past the legal deadline!

Rev insisted on several occasions in the interview that CENI is prepared and ready to organize general elections on November 28.

As regards the illegal registration of minors, security forces personnel, and even in some instances foreign nationals, Rev Mulunda said he'd be a liar and a crook if he were to deny that such irregularities did take place. But he said that political parties, who failed to deploy observers in 99% of the 10,000 registration stations, shared the blame. Besides, as the electoral registers were immediately posted in front of the registration stations, it was up to local communities, who knew their members, to denounce fraudsters to local authorities. Even then, these irregularities were minimal. (This claim of list posting is strange as what was actually posted was the tally of registered voters; but there were no follow-up questions.) For example, in cases of irregularities denounced by the opposition in Kalemie and Manono in Katanga, an investigative team comprising MONUSCO, Radio Okapi, UNICEF and the Congolese police went in and reported back that there was nothing to substantiate those irregularities.

Regarding the higher number of registered voters in Katanga Province in comparison with the lower number of them in the city-province of Kinshasa, Rev Mulunda directed the journos to look at the 2006 registration numbers as initial reference. As a matter-of-fact, in 2006, Katanga had 3,500,000 registered voters, and Kinshasa 2,900,000. What's more, at the start of the revision of the electoral register, Rev Mulunda and CENI met with 700 Kinshasa leaders (from governor, provincial ministers, down to quarters' chieftains) to urge them to motivate citizens in their respective constiuencies to register to vote. Unfortunately, said Rev Mulunda, Kinshasa authorities didn't campaign for voters' registration. Worse, they even impeded it by charging, for instance, 1,000 Congolese Francs for IDs needed for registration! By contrast, in Katanga and in Equateur (the second highest ranking province in number of voters registered), politicians across the political spectrum vigorously campaigned to maximize their constituents' participation in voters' registration. The city-province of Kinshasa has therefore its own politicians to blame for the lower number of registered voters than Katanga Province.

Rev Mulunda said that he was baffled by UDPS leaders' insistence to access CENI's central server, which, after voters' registration and the clean-out of the register, has pretty much turned into an empty shell: votes will be manually tallied and results immediately posted at each polling station. These results will then be compiled by provincial centers, which in turn will send them to CENI Kinshasa headquarters.

Be that as it may, said Rev Mulunda, CENI can open its central server to political parties--again in violation of the law that has the electoral commission as an independent body. CENI has however laid down a number of conditions for this access to its central server. Chief among those was that politicians from both the opposition and the ruling majority have to work within a "framework of consultation" comprising 5 representatives from each camp. Rev Mulunda was mystified to see that only UDPS politicians, including Valentin Mubake (Tshisekedi's political advisor)--and not the opposition's IT experts--are on the opposition list of auditors of CENI. As the opposition and the ruling majority have failed to come together within this "framework of consultation," Rev Mulunda rules out opening the central server to just one political group.

UDPS leaders have also been vocal in their demand for the publication by CENI of the "cartography" of polling stations, that is, their precise location. Rev Mulunda said that more than 140 scouting missions were deployed nationwide by CENI to identify locations for the 62,000 polling stations--schools, government buildings, or grounds where tents could be set up, etc. These scouting missions started returning this past week, and CENI technicians are working to design the polling stations' "cartography," which will soon be published. Rev Mulunda also revealed that when this mapping work will be completed, the "cartography" will have the following mobile phone interactive component: by sending an SMS with a voter's registration number, the location of the polling station will automatically be obtained.

Rev Mulunda also defused the controversy that erupted recently over the outsourcing of the production of ballot boxes from Germany to China. Some politicians and analysts (some, like the daily L'Avenir, close to pro-Kabila political coalition) feared that this change of production venue this late in the game could mean that the elections could be postponed.

Rev Mulunda forcefully repeated that elections will be held on November 28 and that the production of ballot boxes was being carried out according to plan and schedule.

He explained that CENI needs 3 ballot boxes for each one of the 62,000 polling stations--that is 186,000 ballot boxes. This means that the contractor has to produce between 800 and 900 ballot boxes a day.

At the outset, CENI wanted to award this contract to a local company. CENI thus initiated talks with the Kinshasa-based company "Plastica" that produces plastic chairs and other plastic appliances. But five days after this initial contact, "Plastica" went back to CENI to turn down the offer due to the company's inability to produce that number of ballot boxes within the required time frame.

CENI then went shopping for a contractor, first in Nairobi, then finally to South Africa, where it found a company able to produce that number of ballot boxes. The South African contractor has a German partner who can produce ballot boxes according to CENI and international standards. But producing that great number of ballot boxes on such short notice means working around the clock even on weekends--which is a non-starter in a European Union country where labor regulations are stringent. CENI's South African contractor had therefore to find a reliable subcontractor in China, where labor regulations are quasi nonexistent. Ballot boxes will soon arrive and be deployed countrywide.

Rev Mulunda reassured his interviewers and the viewers that CENI has secured its budget for this electoral cycle: 2 billion and 100,000 dollars. But this money is by no means to be solely consumed by the November general elections, whose budget is around $251m (I wonder whether Rev Mulunda was also factoring in MONUSCO's logistical contribution). The remaining money in the budget will fund provincial and local elections slated for 2012 and 2013.

Rev Mulunda was finally asked why CENI has recently upgraded its headquarters with iron fences and concertina, turning it into a fortress. He said that CENI is and should be an "inviolable institution." But at the start of UDPS demos in July, gas cans and Molotov cocktails were found in trash bins inside CENI headquarters. "You can't control masses," he claimed he'd warned UDPS leaders. CENI board members had accepted to serve their country but not to be its martyrs, he pleaded. "We do want to be alive" at the end of the process, he added in order to justify the security upgrade at CENI heaquarters.

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: A Western diplomat's lowdown

1) UDPS change of tactics on Thursdays' demos and 2 police forces with 2 different behaviors

I met this Thursday morning a Western diplomat at a Kinshasa downtown coffee shop catering to expats and moneyed Congolese. (A tiny cup of coffee, without refill, fetches $6,00! As I can't possibly afford such an expense on my limited budget, the diplomat paid for my coffee. I mention this trivial detail because a pro-Tshisekedi reader of this blog accused me of being a member of the pro-Kabila "elite"--people who normally wouldn't flinch at coughing up $6,00 for a cup of coffee without refill!)

The diplomat told me that UDPS has of late changed its tactic for its routine Thursdays demos. Instead of marching, UDPS activists now materialize from nowhere in front of the central Post Office at a previously convened time when UDPS secretary general Jacquemain Shabani appears. And when I was heading to the rendezvous with the diplomat, I saw anti-riot units gathered in front of the Post Office waiting for UDPS demonstrators, while other cops clad in anti-riot gears were patroling up and down Boulevard du 30 Juin, the downtown thoroughfare.

The diplomat also told me there are two different police forces dealing with UDPS rioters--depending on the venue of the demonstration. When the demonstration takes place downtown, two anti-riot battalions trained by the European Union and MONUSCO are deployed. These units are reputed for their professionalism; and they never use live bullets. This behavior is shown downtown no doubt because of the presence of expats and foreign diplomats.

But when demos take place in the cités, where most Kinois live, other strong-armed police units are sent in to squash demonstrators. And these units use live ammuninition.

2) Western goverments have no stakes in Congolese elections

The diplomat was particularly exercised by repeated claims voiced by UDPS leaders and their supporters about the alleged endorsement of Tshisekedi by Western powers. (There's for instance a photoshopped picture of Obama holding a pro-Tshisekedi banner while standing next to the UDPS leader!)

The diplomat insisted that Western powers have no stakes in the upcoming Congolese elections. They have no favorite candidates, he forcefully argued, nor had they made back-room deals with any of the presidential candidates. He called these claims of endorsement "ridiculous" especially in light of the dire economic problems Western countries are now facing.

What's more, Western countries are disappointed by the "unreadable" tactic utilized by UDPS. On the one hand, Tshisekedi's party shows a willingness to participate in the electoral process while at the same time torpedoing it.

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: 1) Radio-Trottoir newsfeed; and 2) Kabila's bilingual press briefing

1) Radio-Trottoir newsfeed

Kinshasa grapevine (Radio-Trottoir) is on overdrive these days. As a matter-of-fact, it has left its natural venue of street corners and has found a new niche on TV.

One  TV station is Radio Lisanga TV (RLTV) owned by controversial erstwhile warlord Roger Lumbala, chair of the RCDN (Rassemblement Congolais des Démocrates Nationalistes). During Africa's World War, MP Lumbala used to be a member of Azarias Ruberwa's Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) before breaking away and setting up his own outfit in Orientale Province called RCD/N ("N" standing for "National"). When warlords integrated the central government in the transitional government in 2003, Lumbala, while keeping the old acronym of his rebel outfit, changed it to stand for Congolese Rally of Nationalist Democrats.

RLTV was partially burned allegedly by pro-Kabila supporters during the riots following the filing by Tshisekedi of his candidacy. Radio-Trottoir now accuses MP Lumbala of arson: he might have burned his own TV station for political gain!

MP Lumbala often appears on his own TV where he spreads the wackiest of the wildest rumors. In an hour-long interview given to his own journalist on Monday, October 17, MP Lumbala announced that Obama, Sarkozy, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé, the European Union, and South Africa have all chosen Tshisekedi as the new president--just as the international community had chosen Kabila in 2006! MP Lumbala also said Obama is fed up with Kabila for selling uranium to Iran--an old rumor spread by the opposition in 2006, and which is now being recycled. In the same interview MP Lumbala reiterated his insults at Léon Kengo wa Dondo, questioning his Congolese citizenship, claiming.that not being a citizen, he had no "natural constituency" in the DRC. He also called Kengo a major "Perturbator of the Republic" from the time of Mobutu's rule to the present.

MP Lumbala didn't stop at his "naturalism" of the true Congolese nationalist patriotism of opposition leaders of his ilk. Hevalso took a swipe at Vital Kamerhe who, he claims, is Kabila's stalking-horse. Besides, having been kicked out of the Presidential Majority (MP) for lack of discipline, he better behave with discipline within the opposition or he'd also be rejected by the opposition for indiscipline.

Asked how the pro-Tshisekedi opposition would behave in the event of his candidate's loss, MP Lumbala's response was ominous: there won't be such an alternative as Tshisekedi must win. Otherwise the opposition would take the fight to the street--and MP Lumbala claimed having already received the assurances of the top brass of security services to the effect that they would disobey any order directing them to fire upon the "revolutiomaries."

During this mock interview made for the sole purpose of giving a platfom to the owner of RLTV, the host asked MP Lumbala about the rumors of "dictarorial tendencies" of Tshisekedi and whether the latter would accomodate the diverse political projects of the various parties and leaders.backimg his presidential bid. MP Lumbala brushed aside those rumors and claimed that Tshisekedi would incorporate all those programs. Asked whether Tshisekedi is playing straight with his allies when he has lined up his own son Fêlix Tshisekedi to run for MP in the same constitiency as Lumbala, the latter responded by saying that though the oppositionists back Tshisekedi's presidential bid they still remain competitors at the legislative level where the party that would have won the most seats at the National.Assembly would pick a prime minister from its ranks.

RLTV has a show called SET 7. SET stands for "Support à Etienne Tshisekedi" and the two hosts of the live show are featured against the background of a huge color portrait painting of Tshisekedi. One of the hosts, Elianezer, has been dubbed "The Prophet" for an exercise in numerology he has recently engaged in on the subject of the official number given by CENI to the 11 presidential candidates based on the alphabetical order of their last names. In that list Tshisekedi is number 11. According to Elianezer, this number 11 is auspicious for Tshisekedi for these reasons: 1) The elections are taking place in the 11th month of the year 2011--the year of "Mopepe ya sika, Mopepe ya Tshisekedi" (the new wind, the wind of Tshisekedi"; and 2) 11 features ominously on September 11, the date of Al-Qaeda attacks on the United States!

There are also rumors being spread by the opposition through Radio-Trottoir channels alleging that the pro-Kabila coalition has set up militias made of machete-wielding "mpomba" (body builders). There are also rumors of intensified banditry by "kuluneurs" (check label cloud for a post relating to the subject), which have people a repeat of "kata-kata" terror during the 2006 elections. "Kata-kata" was an expression coined from the Lingala verb "ko-kata," which means to hack. It described a series of grisly murders that took place during the run-up to the 2006 general elections in which the dozen or so victims were cut to pieces with machetes. Rumors had it that the "kata-kata" were planned and carried out by Jean-Pierre Bemba's militiamen to instill a sense of insecurity and build Bemba's image as the "securocrat" who would restore the rule of law in the Congolese capital. The rumors might have had some truth to it as the unsolved serial murders stopped after the defeat of Bemba's militia by the Presidential Guard!

There were recently a spate of prison breaks in mass numbers. And some opposition leaders were accusing pro-Kabila groups of masterminding those prison breaks so as to enlist hardened criminals in the militias!

It is strange that the CSCAC, the high council on communication and media--the press police--has done nothing to curb the TV shows that have turned into rumor mills despite the much-publicized set of rules it recently released as well as a ban on propaganda prior to the official opening of electoral campaign on October 29. On Kabila's side, the TV station Têlé 50 carries out a constant barrage of pro-incumbent propaganda 24/7!

***

I also heard a new moniker given Kabila by the Kinois. The nickname is in the Kikongo language: "Sisa-Bindimbu" or he who leaves beacons of symbols in his wake! Probing why the Raïs was given such an outlandish moniker, I was referred to the "Cinq Chantiers" infrastructure component of Kabila's daunting reconstruction program much maligned by the oppositionists for its limited scope, staggering costs, and botched conception--accordimg to them. It is therefore likely that the pro-Kabila coalition came up with this "Sisa-Bindimbu" moniker and "broadcast" it through Radio-Trottoir.

Another rumor alleges that pro-Tshisekedi supporters from his Luba ethnic group are bragging about his win in November. They are allegedly repeating the following talking point, if that: " We'll squash you, we haven' squashed yet!" I overheard a Kinois who had just been told.about this "tribal threat" angrily react saying: "The Luba will one day rule this country; but it won't be this time around!"

2) Kabila's bilingual press briefing

Today, at a marathon bilingual press briefing lasting two hours forty-five minutes, Kabila fielded questions by local and international journos on questions ranging from his human rights record to the elections--including the weekly Thursday demos by UDPS activists. The press briefing had two parts: in the first one, Kabila took questions and answered them in English. The second part of the press conference was held in French.

Kabila was calm and composed, and tethered any apparent testiness at some of the seemingly impertinent questions put to him. Bruno Minas of Radio France Internationale (RFI), for example, asked Kabila whether he didn't feel somehow "disconnected from the people" when he recently claimed in a speech to the cadre of his coalition that magistrates had a monthly salary of $1,650, whereas their actual salary is $450--an apparent mistake that sparked outrage among them and a short strike. Kabila jokingly chastised Minas for only highlighting the salary part of his speech, while forgetting the many other issues he'd broached in it. But he also explained that while the decree of the raise of the magistrates' salary had been signed in 2010, it's the actual implementation of the new salary that has been lagging. A gap soon to be bridged, he claimed. Adding, "And even then, $1,650 isn't enough for a magistrate!"

Asked about his humam rights record, Kabila claimed  it's improving, while reminding the questioner that for 300 hundred years slavery was carried out without so much a peep coming from the very parts of the world that have turned into today's champions of human rights. Ditto for the more than 60 years of colonization, and just 20 years ago, the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Strangely, Kabila revealed that he learned about the deployment of American troops in Central Africa while surfing the net. He explained his not being informed by the fact that Joseph Kony and the LRA now mostly operate in the Central African Republic and the Republic of South Sudan.

Kabila showed moxie when it came to the election and the UDPS weekly demos. He jokingly retorted to a reporter (who asked what he'd do if he loses the election) that he'd turn to journalism--and added he'd leave office though he was however certain he'd be reelected. He also jokingly offered to be a mediator for opposition leaders who can't agree on a common candidate. But on a serious note, without naming UDPS, he questioned its tactic of Thursdays' demos we are "at four or five Thursdays from the elections." He accused the same parties that boycotted the 2006 elections to try and hold back the country once more. "The people will resist" such move.

If anything, Kabila proved wrong today those who claim he's incapable of public speaking or engaging in a live debate. I saw today a combative candidate able to defend his record and to do so rationally--and at times with witty repartees. Be that as it may, political parties are quite entrenched in their positions and no amount of wit would make their followers budge. Furthermore, it's also question of alternative visions of governance and societal projects. In the end, granting that elections are fair and square, it's the "primary sovereign" or the people that will decide on November 28.

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Now blogging from Kinshasa...

Three months after my last one-year stint in Kin, I'm once again in the Congolese capital--where I arrived via Brussels on Saturday, October 15.

Being at ground zero has its advantages and disadvantages. Among the former, the flavor of authenticity when blogging about the momentous events that elections represent. Having arrived before the beginning of the electoral campain set to begin on October 29 is an added bonus.

The drawback of blogging mostly from a mobile phone is the narrowing of perspective and  formatting difficulties (no possibility of establishing hyperlinks or labeling posts--as most of the latter will be sent via emails).

This being said, allow me a short rant against United Airlines.

My flight was booked on Brussels Airlines. But as Brussels Airlines doesn't fly from Dulles, I had to fly United Airlines, which is a member of the "Skyteam" to which BA also belongs. An hour into the fligjt, as drinks were being served, I waited with trepidation the cart coming down the aisle for my first beer of the day. But it was not meant to be.

"Six dollars seventy-five," the (male) flight attendant coldly told me. There's no way I'm going to buy a tiny can of insipid beer for that price. This is a fleecing of travelers!

Things changed dramatically aboard the BA flight to Kin where I was treated to 3 cans of Jupiler beer. European airlines are still civilized!

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: 1) Kin braces for another UDPS demo on Thursday; and 2) MP Roger Lumbala: “Kengo is not a Congolese by a long shot, either on his father’s or his mother’s side”

1) Kin is bracing for yet another UDPS demo on Thursday 

Jacquemain Shabani Lukoo

UDPS Secretary General

(Credits)

UDPS secretary general Jacquemain Shabani Lukoo has written to Kinshasa Governor André Kimbuta (PPRD) to inform him about a mass rally UDPS will hold on Thursday, October 13, at the Square of the Post Office Hotel in downtown Kinshasa. 

In a strange reversal to of its usual anti-UDPS editorial line, the daily L’Avenir condemned the repression meted out previously to UDPS demonstrators, asserting that this was done in violation of the constitution.

While Article 25 of the constitution guarantees the “freedom of peaceful meetings without weapons,” Article 26 specifically states:

“The freedom of demonstration is guaranteed. 

All demonstrations on public roads or in open air oblige the organizers to inform the competent administrative authority in writing. 

No one may be forced to take part in a demonstration. 

The law determines the application measures.”

It remains to be seen if Kinshasa city authorities will let this demo take place or if MP Francis Kalombo wouldn’t call a counter-demo by the PPRD Youth League. 

2) MP Roger Lumbala: “Kengo is not a Congolese by a long shot, either on his father’s or his mother’s side”

Pro-Tshisekedi MP Roger Lumbala

Chair, Rassemblement des Congolais Démocrates Nationalistes (RCDN)

2006 Presidential candidate

Former warlord and current MP Roger Lumbala is known for his abrasive personality and his big mouth. With his latest outburst, Lumbala seems to have outdone even himself. 

When asked, in an interview with L’Avenir, what he thought about Kengo’s self-appointment as the opposition’s common candidate, Lumbala blurted out:

“You know, our country is a victim of its legendary hospitality. Kengo, in principle, his file [submitted to CENI for his presidential candidacy] should have been rejected because he is not a Congolese by a long shot—either on his father’s side or his mother’s side.”

If it's true that Kengo's father was Polish and his mother a Rwandan Tutsi, the fact remains that Kengo is today a Congolese citizen who also happens to be the President of the Senate. While paying lip service to democracy or accusing the Kinshasa regime of infringing civil liberties, Tshisekedi's supporters actually never extend the courtesy of democratic debate or contradiction to their opponents. 

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: Rift widens within opposition: Léon Kengo wa Dondo appoints himself opposition’s common candidate

Angèle Makombo-Eboum

Chair, Ligue des Démocrates Congolais (LIDEC)

Founding member and spokesperson of pro-Kengo platform Forces de l’Opposition Réunies au Congo (FORECO)

(Credits)

Just days after meeting Etienne Tshisekedi in Brussels, Léon Kengo wa Dondo launched Saturday at the Memling Hotel in downtown Kinshasa a new political "platform" tosupport his presidential bid. The new group is called Forces de l’Opposition Réunies au Congo (FORECO) and brings together more than 50 smaller political parties.

Speaking at the event, Kengo said:

“I want to be the man around whom are gathered all the forces of change with a common ideal and program of governance.”

 Kengo appeared to be taking a swipe at Tshisekedi in two passages of his keynote address to the assembled parties' leaders:

1) “At this moment when you endow me with this charge, I issue this call to my colleague presidential candidates: Let’s make a choice of reason and not of passion. The country needs a credible candidate, able not only to achieve victory, but above all to reconstruct the state.” 

 2) “I am not seeking power for power’s sake…”

The second passage directly alludes to the rumor alleging that Tshisekedi had sworn to be president even for one minute before he dies.

     

The speaker who introduced Tshisekedi at the event was Angèle Makombo-Eboum, 56, chair of the Ligue des Démocrates Congolais (LIDEC) and former senior UN official, who, until recently, was planning on running herself for president. Makombo said: “We extend our hand to [the other presidential candidates]. And we say that we absolutely need a common candidate in order to increase our chances of winning in November.”

Thus thickens the electoral plot… 

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: 1) Kabila picks up major endorsement of former Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga; 2) Jean-Pierre Bemba non-committal on Tshisekedi’s solo bid; and 3) Rumors rife in Kinshasa about postponement of elections

1) Kabila picks up major endorsement of former Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga

Former Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga

Chairman, Parti Lumumbiste Unifié (PALU)

Photo : John Bompengo/Radio Okapi

(Credits)

On Friday, October 7, Kabila picked up a major endorsement for his presidential bid by former Prime Minister, PALU chairman and formerpresidential candidate Antoine Gizenga, 86, a veteran politician. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, his party, the Parti Solidaire Africain (PSA), was an ally of Patrice Emery Lumumba’s Mouvement National Congolais (MNC). (More about Gizenga's biography on his Wikipedia page here.) The current Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito, who replaced Gizenga, is also a PALU member and a nephew of the former PM. Gizenga hails from the southwestern province of Bandundu.

Gizenga made his announcement to a throng of PALU members at his residence in the Ngaliema Commune. On July 23, Gizenga announced that hisparty won’t be fielding any presidential candidate but “claimed to have sentfeelers for a project of “political agreement” (“entente”) with unnamedpartners. And if no one responds by some unspecified deadline to these feelers, Gizenga added, PALU ‘will shortly feel compelled to render public its project and to take responsibility for it.’”

In his endorsement, Gizenga said that Kabila was the only one among the presidential candidates to belong to the “nationalist Lumumbist movement,” adding, “he is the only one to have exposited a program with a leftist nationalist aimed mainly at the greatness of the nation, the preservation of unity and sovereignty of the people, [and] the improvement of the social conditions of the population.”

While Gizenga was making this announcement, it also transpired that one of his aides and former Minister to the Prime Minister GodefroidMayobo Mpwene Ngantien had escaped what is presented in the media as an“abortive attempt” on his life in Kenge, Bandundu Province, a constituency where he is running for MP.  According to his spokesman, Mayobo’s SUV was attacked by assailants belonging to an unnamed “candidate belonging to the [same] Left” as PALU, but “fortunately he was not on board the vehicle.”  After beating up the occupants of the SUV, the assailant reportedly told them that as Mayobo was a native of Kwilu, he had no right of running in Kenge. According to the provisional list of MPs released by CENI, the other major candidate belonging to Kabila’s group of parties running for a seat in Kenge is none other than PPRD stalwart, former Interior Minister and MP Théophile Mbemba Fundu di Luyindu.

Former Minister Godefroid Mayobo Mpwene Ngantien, MP candidate (PALU)

Photo: Radio Okapi

(Credits)

2) From his jail cell at Scheveningen  Prison Complex, Bemba non-committal on Tshisekedi’s solo bid  

Aimé Kilolo Musamba

Jean-Pierre Bemba’s counsel at the ICC

Aimé Kilolo Musamba, member of Jean-Pierre Bemba’s counsel at the International Criminal Court (ICC), issued, on Tuesday, October 4, issued the following communiqué on behalf of his client:

“The position of Senator Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, in relation to the choice of the opposition’s candidate in the upcoming presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is the following:
 He calls on all candidates of the political opposition in the upcoming presidential elections to assume their responsibilities and unite around one sole candidate of the opposition.
 The latter should be designated by consensus, after consultations between senior leaders of the various interested political formations.
 As far as he is concerned, he will support the opposition’s common candidate who will be designated at the end of the process, whoever he happens to be.
 The Hague, October 4, 2011
For Senator Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo.
His counsel,
Aimé Kilolo Musamba”

3) CENI denies rumors rife in Kinshasa about postponement of elections

Matthieu Mpita

CENI Rapporteur

Photo: John Bompengo/Radio Okapi

(Credits)

Amid rumors of an unavoidable postponement of elections (due to logistical drawbacks), CENI Rapporteur Matthieu Mpita, at his press briefing on Friday, insisted that the elections will definitely be held on November 28.  He also confirmed however rumors alleging that the German company contracted to produce ballot boxes had finally declined and their production re-outsourced to China.

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Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero just concluded a 2-day visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo

Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero

CENI headquarters

Kinshasa, Thursday, October 6, 2011

Photo: Yassa/L’Avenir

(Credits)

I missed this one, though State’s Press Relations office released six days ago the following “Media Note”:

“Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs María Otero will travel to Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from October 2 to 6 to discuss the promotion of democratic institutions and processes, human rights issues, and global issues related to peace, security, and stability. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Todd Robinson will accompany Under Secretary Otero on the trip.

During her visit to Burundi, Under Secretary Otero will engage with senior government officials and civil society representatives to discuss trafficking in persons, human rights, as well as bilateral and multilateral cooperation. She will also meet with the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region to discuss common security and development objectives. 

In the DRC, Under Secretary Otero will hold meetings with senior Congolese officials, civil society representatives, youth leaders, the private sector and international organizations to engage on a range of issues including conflict minerals, elections, mobile banking, human rights, health, and sexual and gender based violence (SGBV). In addition to a stop in Kinshasa, she will visit South Kivu province where she will tour a hospital that treats SGBV victims and engage with a range of actors on working to disrupt the link between the minerals trade and armed groups.”

Two articles are devoted by the daily L’Avenir to this visit.  It seems that Under Secretary Otero entered the DRC via Bukavu (South Kivu Province), where, according to L’Avenir, she visited Dr. Denis Mukwege’s Panzi Hospital, where are treated women victims of sexual terrorism; and met with USAID team on strategies to stymie SGBV, as well as army leaders on approaches to curb child soldiering. (I have discussed Dr. Mukwege’s work at Bukavu Panzi Hospital on this blog here, here, and here.)

In Bukavu and Kinshasa, still according to L’Avenir, Under Secretary Otero also had lengthy meetings with DRC Mining Minister Martin Kabwelulu “on the efforts by the Congolese government to sever the link between minerals trade and armed groups.”

Adding:

“It was [after one of these meetings with Mining Minister Kabwelu] that [Under Secretary Otero] announced the creation in the coming days (probably in the month of November) of the Alliance between public and private sectors for a Responsible Minerals Trade, in acronym PPA [Private-Public sectors Alliance?]. PPA, she explained, is a joint effort between the US government, private sector companies and business associations, civil society and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).  

According to the information facts sheet given to journalists, PPA intends to support the achievement of three objectives. Firstly, it will help in developing a pilot supply chain that will allow companies to get supplies in minerals from mines that will be audited and certified as being without links to conflict. 

Secondly, it will provide a coordination platform for actors in government, industry, and civil society willing to support a minerals-supply process not linked to conflicts in the DRC. 

Thirdly, finally, the PPA will create a website conceived to serve as resource for companies seeking information related to responsible supply of DRC minerals. On this subject, USAID plans on funding PPA with $3.2m. This will specifically serve to support the certification and traceability of conflict-free minerals.”

Maybe this new structure would allay the concerns of anti-Dodd Frank activists like David Aronson of Congo Resources.

In Kinshasa, on Thursday, October 6, Under Secretary Otero, flanked by the US Kinshasa Ambassador James F. Entwistle and other American officials, visited CENI headquarters where she met with CENI’s Rapporteur Matthieu Mpika, Deputy Questor  Elise Muhimuzi, and National Executive Secretary Dave Banza. Under Secretary Otero also visited CENI central server.

“The ongoing electoral process,” said Under Secretary Otero, “will allow Congolese to freely choose their future leaders” (my retranslation from the French translation).

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: 1) UDPS demo dispersed by riot cops; 2) Supreme Court of Justice dismisses UDPS petition against PPRD over a technicality; 3) ZETES rejects Jason Stearns’s fraud allegations but move shouldn’t cower observers into silence; and 4) US Kinshasa Embassy funds civil society’s website for phone tracking polls of presidential candidates

1) UDPS demo dispersed by riot cops

Another UDPS demo was dispersed with tear gas today—Thursday, October 6—by the riot police of the eastern precinct of Kinshasa. As per usual, UDPS members intended to march to CENI headquarters where their leaders intended to submit another memo on the still controversial subject of the access to CENI server and the audit of the electoral register.

2) Supreme Court of Justice dismisses UDPS petition against PPRD over a technicality.

In a controversial ruling rendered last night—Wednesday, October 5—the Supreme Court of Justice, siding with Public Prosecutor Kabwila Mavinga, rejected UPDS motion for the exclusion of PPRD MP candidates in some some constituencies  for that party stacking its lists.  The Supreme Court grounded its argument over a mere technicality: the motion wasn’t introduced within the legally allotted time for complaints of 4 days.

UDPS lawyers decried the ruling, claiming that the it showed the partiality of the Supreme Court of Justice and called on president Joseph Kabila to set up a Constitutional Court that should specifically deal with electoral matters. They also pointed out that they had filed their motion within the timeframe required by law: the provisional list was published on September 22, a day which shouldn’t count. Having filed their motion on September 27, UDPS lawyers assert they had filed their motion on time.

On its part, CENI says that the list of MPs it published on September 22 was a provisional list, which still needed to be cleared of errors, and therefore UDPS didn’t have a case to begin with.

3) ZETES rejects Jason Stearns’s fraud allegations but move shouldn’t cower observers into silence

Jason Stearns published on Tuesday, October 4, a post titled “Response by Zetes to allegations of fraud,” which gives the full text of Zetes to his suspicions of fraud in progress in the electoral register. Zetes is the Belgian company that won UNDP contract “for the creation of 10,000 kits for the identification and biometric enrolment of voters” as well as to “put together a team of 100 project managers and technicians to train 25,000 Congolese operators and technicians to be able to provide technical support during the registration phase.” Zetes had found and warned CENI over the now infamous “doublons” (duplicate registrations).

The argument of Zetes to reject Jason Stearns’s allegation is credible as it is steeped in sound statistical interpretation.  Though I agree with Zetes' explanations, I want to point out that this shouldn’t mean that Jason Stearns and other observers should be cowered into silence when they see matters of concern in the ongoing electoral cycle.

4) US Kinshasa Embassy funds civil society’s website for phone tracking polls of presidential candidates

It appears that the US Kinshasa Embassy is funding a new website called “Momekano” for phone tracking polls of presidential candidates. In an interview I monitored on the web portal of Radio Okapi , “Momekano”  director, Patrick Kabangiro Tafuta, said that the US Kinshasa will regularly publish the results of the tracking polls—though he didn’t specify the frequency of these publications. "Momekano" is a Lingala word which means competition or by extension election.

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Amanda Knox's murder conviction overturned on appeal but has to pay €20K in defamation damages to her former Congolese boss Diya Patrick Lumumba

Diya Patrick Lumumba

Owner of Le Chic, the bar where Amanda Knox worked in Perugia

Franco Origlia/Getty Images

(Credits)

Though her murder conviction has been overturned, Amanda Knox has still to pay €20K in defamation damages for falsely implicating her then Congolese boss, Diya Patrick Lumumba. (Details of the sordid affair appeared on this blog here.)

Last month, Time magazine published a Who’s Who of characters in the murder case of Meredith Kercher.   Patrick Lumumba Diya’s role is summed up as follows:

“Diya "Patrick" Lumumba

Knox worked part-time at Le Chic, a pub that Lumumba owned in Perugia. Police arrested him and held him for two weeks after Knox wrongly implicated him in the murder. She claims that authorities misinterpreted a text message he sent her on the day of the murder that said “See you later.” Congolese-born Lumumba sued Knox the following year and won 40,000 euros in damages. “His bar has shut and he has a wife and child to support,” his lawyer said ahead of that lawsuit. “His life changed dramatically after he was wrongly named by Amanda as the killer.”

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: 1) CENI starts publication of electoral registers amid controversy stirred by Jason Stearns; and 2) Media watchdog enacts stringent rules

1) CENI starts publication of electoral register amid controversy stirred by Jason Stearns

Jason Stearns

Stirring controversy in Kinshasa

Photo: Alex Engwete

At the weekly press briefing of the electoral commission held on Friday, September 30, CENI Rapporteur Matthieu Mpita announced that the publication of the electoral register has started on Wednesday, September 28, as mandated by law. But so far, CENI web portal has published the register of two provinces: Bas-Congo and Maniema.

It is unclear whether the published lists have been cleared of “doublons” (duplicates). On this score, fresh ammunition was given to the opposition by the post of Jason Stearns titled “Document may suggest fraud in the voter register,” which had been commented in French by the Brussels-based CongoForum.

In Kinshasa, Jason Stearns’s interpretation of the ZETES survey has given new ammunition to discredit CENI.

Congo News, close to the opposition, puts it bluntly as follows:

“An American investigator accuses CENI of having fraudulently introduced millions of duplicates in the electoral registry. The investigation was done on the review of the electoral registry of Bandundu, Equateur, Orientale, and the city of Kinshasa. In the four provinces, Jason Stearns added up close to 700,000 duplicates against the 119,000 given by CENI for the entirety of the 11 provinces.”

2) Media watchdog CSAC enacts stringent rules

Chantal Kanyinda Manyonga

Erstwhile anchorwoman and President  of the Union Nationale de la Presse du Congo (UNPC)

Current Rapporteur of media watchdog CSAC

Reading the new rules of the game to the media

Photo: John Bompengo/Radio Okapi

(Credits)

On Wednesday, September 28, the newly-installed media watchdog authority Conseil Supérieur  de l’Audiovisuel et de  la Communication (CSAC) published a document containing 61 rules of conduct for the media during the electoral period. CSAC Rapporteur Chantal Kanyinda Manyonga read the document for the media and the public.

Besides reminding the media the fundamental rules of journalism, the new rules ban, among other things, hateful political ads; sets, according to CENI timeline, the elections campaign between October 28 and November 26 at midnight; orders candidates' equal access and time to public media, etc. Failure to abide by these laws will be sanctioned according to the law. CSAC has the authority to suspend specific programs or to shut down offending media outlets altogether.

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American Indignados: “We are the 99%”: The “Occupy” cities movement attempts to wrest back democracy hijacked by corporations and their political stooges

“We are the 99%”

Sign held by an American “indignado”

New York City, October 2, 2011

twitpic Photo posted by @jopauca

(Credits)

Yesterday I was following with fascination on Twitter the American “Occupy” cities movement in action in New York City.  There’s definitely something major happening in America—a “revolution” that would ultimately dwarf the Tea Party rise, if it maintains its current momentum.

And this revolution has nothing to do with the Arab Spring as Nicholas D. Kristof wrongly assumes in his op-ed “The Bankers and the Revolutionaries”:

“I tweeted that the protest reminded me a bit of Tahrir Square in Cairo, and that raised eyebrows. True, no bullets are whizzing around, and the movement won’t unseat any dictators. But there is the same cohort of alienated young people, and the same savvy use of Twitter and other social media to recruit more participants. Most of all, there’s a similar tide of youthful frustration with a political and economic system that protesters regard as broken, corrupt, unresponsive and unaccountable.”

If anything, this American “revolution” has instead close affinities with the movement of the “indignados” (the Outraged ones) that sprang up in May in Madrid when thousands of young protesters illegally occupied the Puerta del Sol square “in defiance of a ban on public demonstrations in the run up to the country's local elections.”

The Arab Spring movement was the rise of the masses against medieval regimes whereas the Spanish and American movements have their root in a “crisis of political economy” of advanced Western democratic capitalist systems; a crisis that has prompted a “delegitimation of political and economic elites,” as futurologist and global intelligence analyst George Friedman has powerfully demonstrated in an essay I reproduced on this blog.

The difference between the “Occupy” American cities movement with its Spanish counterpart is the massive scale of the movement in the US and its overt political economy content and implications (read below the manifesto of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement).  Well, anything American is in essence gigantic. Participants in this movement are primarily from the left and “extreme” left—ordinary liberals, disappointed pro-Obama types, recovering Naderites, the rising generation of feminist firebrands and LGBT activists, anarchists of all stripes (including the pro-WikiLeaks Anonymous hackers, etc.)—as well as independents , some of whom of the “Non-Paul” libertarian persuasion.

Blogvolution in Manhattan

Photo: John Minchillo/Scanpix /AP

In his op-ed, Kristof rightly says that at the “”Occupy Wall Street was initially treated as a joke.” And, yesterday, “Occupy Wall Street” protesters at the Brooklyn Bridge and their supporters were complaining about the lack of coverage of their direct action by CNN, which seems to still consider the movement as a big joke. “#CNN airing reruns of CAIN/Blitzer interview while throngs are marching for equality, against corporate greed/power,” tweeted at one point yesterday @GottaLaugh.

And when CNN did pick up the story today, its correspondent Susan Candiotti on the scene described a leaderless movement with “no organized message.”  @GrainOfSands tweeted: “#CNN harping on ‘no 1 leader’4 #OccupyWallStreet protest. Why is that so important? We have no corporate leadership? Is that what they imply?”

As for the lack of “organized message,” maybe Susan Candiotti ought to check out this story by CBS6 “’Occupy Wall Street’ releases official declaration” with a link to the TweetDeck of actor/director Mark Ruffalo (@Mruff221).

This is the declaration/manifesto of the “Occupy Wall Street" movement as given by Mark Ruffalo tweeting yesterday from his TweetDeck (a sweeping rejection of savage neoliberialism and state disengagement advocated by the Tea Party--a rational and civilized capitalism of the European social-democratic kind):

"#occupywallstreet Here is the General Assemblies Statement Read it and weep (tears of joy) Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.”   

White shirts “square off against protesters”

Brooklyn Bridge, New York

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Photo: Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters

(Credits)

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