DRC Elections 2011 Watch: 1) Ballot boxes start arriving from China; 2) Gov Bill Richardson reads statement in... French; 3) CENI Deputy Chair Jacques N'Djoli warns Orientale Gov over Tshisekedi boycott; 4) Alphonse Awenze: the wild-card MP candidate

1) Ballot boxes start arriving from China

Ballot boxes started arriving from China this week. Two flights have so far landed, carrying more than 30,000 ballot boxes: the first 747 Boeing cargo plane in Lubumbashi and the second one in Kinshasa. The ballot boxes of Lubumbashi are to be distributed in eastern provinces, those of Kinshasa in western provinces. The airlift is to continue in the coming days.

On Tuesday, November 1, CENI Chair Rev Daniel Ngoy Mulunda unveiled two exemplars of those ballot boxes (blue lid for legislative polls; yellow lid for presidential poll) at a forum with political leaders and in the presence of Gov Bill Richardson (see next section).

MONUSCO announced on Wednesday, November 2, that its planes and copters would promptly deploy the ballot boxes to various provinces in its ongoing logistical support to CENI.


2) Gov Bill Richardson reads statement in... French!

Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson participated on Tuesday at a forum organized by CENI with political leaders at the conference hall of the Palais du Peuple, the seat of Parliament in Lingwala Commune.

Gov Richardson read his statement in French, which he speaks fairly well, though he failed to pronounce the "t" in the word "démocratie" as a "c." He said he was confident CENI will organize free, fair, transparent, and democratic elections.

CENI Chair Rev Mulunda finally formally unveiled the "cartography" of polling stations countrywide, two samples of the newly arrived transparent ballot boxes, and called on candidates holding government or parastals' positions to resign. What he meant by this call wasn't immediately clear. Does he mean for instance that Premier Adolphe Muzito who is also running for a parliamentary seat ought to resign? Or the Prez himself for that matter?

3) CENI Deputy Chair Jacques N'Djoli warns Orientale Gov over Tshisekedi boycott

In an interview on pro-Kabila Télé 50 TV, CENI Deputy Chair Jacques N'Djoli warned Orientale Province Gov Médard Auchai Asenga over reports he'd directed gas stations not to supply UDPS cars and motorcycles planning to go to Kisangani Bangboka International Airport to welcome Etienne Tshisekedi whenever he lands at the provincial capital from South Africa and the anti-UDPS banners and signs the governor had allowed to be put up in the streets. There were also rumors alleging that Gov Auchai had banned Tshisekedi from Orientale Province!

N'Djoli reminded the governor he'd be held legally accountable if anything went amiss during Tshisekedi's planned trip to Kisangani and other cities of the Orientale Province.

Contrary to pro-Tshisekedi political leaders' claims, N'Djoli said the audit of the central server will soon take place. After the adoption of the terms of reference of the opposition and the list of auditors from both the opposition and the ruling majority camps, N'Djoli insisted, the audit is to take place soon.

4) Alphonse Awenze: the wild-card MP candidate in Kisangani

Public transportation vehicles had at one point disappeared from Kisangani--what with Africa's World War and other economic woes. They were replaced by bicycles whose carriers had been retrofitted to carry people. These bicycles go by the Lingala moniker of "Toleka" (Let's move on) and their operators called "Tolekistes." The "tolekists" come generally from the uneducated lower rungs of society.

Alphonse Awenze doesn't fit the profile of average "tolekists": he happens to be an unemployed university graduate turned "tolekist." He's now running as an independent MP with a populist message that's spreading like bushfire in Kisangani: "Don't vote for politicians who are nothing more than low-life thieves stealing what belongs by right to all citizens--especially the poor!"

With no money for campaigning, Awenze has found powerful allies in members of his guild and the disenfranchised youths of the city. Kisangani "tolekists" and many young people are donning t-shirts with Number "48" written on their backs--Awenze's number on the ballot papers.

At the start of the political campaign, the other candidates didn't take Awenze seriously. But things appear to have dramatically changed.

I talked yesterday with an MP candidate on his way to N'Djili Airport to go campaigning in his Kisangani constituency--the same as Awenze's. He was positively terrified by Awenze, though he enjoys the backing and the money of the "Majorité Présidentielle" (MP). He even went ballistic at one point, when he felt I was somehow defending his rival. "He's a nutcase who doesn't belong in politics," he said, seething with rage. "He belongs in a nuthouse!" He even suggested that Awenze's academic credentials might be fake.

What's even more enraging to professional politicians is that whenever they'd distribute t-shirts with their logos, those t-shirts are then turned inside out and number "48" written all over them!

Awenze is now a variable, a wild card political operatives have to factor in their campaign strategy in Kisangani.

5) Riot cops fire tear gas at UDPS members at Place Victoire in Kinshasa

Yesterday, in the early afternoon, at Place Victoire in Kalamu Commune, a row erupted between municipal police and UDPS members over the spot where a billboard of Tshisekedi was to be put up. Municipal authorities claimed that spot was already rented for a Kabila billboard. Soon enough, a vociferous throng of Tshisekedi supporters had gathered. Riot cops also showed up, and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. According to the  pro-opposition RLTV, the pro-Tshisekedi Lebanese-Congolese politician Chaloupa was arrested on the scene.