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.