started releasing partial legislative election results yesterday,
Wednesday, December 28, on prime time TV. Further results are expected
today evening.
This follows a one-week freeze of CENI's activities ordered by its
board. CENI had then requested the participation of electoral experts
from the U.S. and Britain in the wake of the outcry over presidential
election results. American experts are due to arrive by this week's
end whereas their British and African counterparts are expected to get
here next week.
According to CENI Chair Rev Daniel Ngoy Mulunda, who, along the other
members of the electoral board, stands by the presidential election
results, the role of the foreign experts--all of whom are "electoral
statisticians"--will be to ensure the transparency and the fairness of
results in contentious electoral constituencies. UDPS was quick to
dismiss the move as a gimmick, with Albert Moleka, Tshisekedi's chief
of staff, suggesting that a rational methodology would require that
the experts also take into account the results of the presidential
elections. Some other opposition leaders went even further, charging
that CENI gave itself a full week to perfect the fraud of giving the
"Presidential Majority" (MP) the majority win it needs to form the
next government, as required by the constitution.
The partial results released yesterday were for parts of the
constituencies of Bandundu, Bas-Congo, Equateur, Kasai Oriiental, the
Kivus, and Orientale.
The headline of yesterday's partial results was the following:
1) The wife of Jean-Pierre Bemba, the MLC leader jailed at The Hague,
won in the constituency of Gemena, in Equateur.
2) Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito was easily re-elected in his
constituency of Kikwit (Bandundu) on PALU list.
3) Still in Bandundu, Aubin Minaku, Secretary General of the
Presidential Majority coaltion, was elected in his stronghold of
Idiofa.
4) UDPS won both seats in the Kasai constituencies--as well as two
seats in the Kivus. ( The question in people's minds is whether the
incoming UDPS MPs would boycott the incoming National Assembly, join
the open rebellion of Tshisekedi, and thereby forfeiting their
astronomical $7,000 monthly parliamentary salaries!)
4) Astonishingly, Konde Vila Kikanda, a native of Bas-Congo Province,
came in first in the constituency of Goma, in Northern Kivu Province!
This oddity can be explained by the fact that Kikanda was the governor
of Northern Kivu in the Mobutu regime. People in Kivu still have a
vivid memory of Kikanda as a competent and uncorruptible governor.
(And, by the way, the current governor, Julien Paluku, was also
elected on the list of RCD-KLM.)
5) Orientale Gov Auchai was elected in his conatituency of Aru, in
northern Orientale.
6) In Equateur, current governor, Jean-Claude Baende was elected. But
some formidable foes of Kabila were also elected or re-elected. Former
Equateur governor, José Makila, was elected. And MLC stalwart, MP
Jean-Lucien Busa, who single-handedly nearly brought down Prime
Minister Adolphe Muzito, was re-elected.
7) Still in Equateur, Portfolio Minister Jeannine Mabunda was
re-elected in her constituency of Bumba.
8) The most terrible mews from Equateur is the crushing defeat
suffered by Environment and Nature Conservation Minister José Endundo,
who has done much to raise the profile of conservation from the
backwater where it had been kept for long.
***
In an unrelated development, the ban on text messages imposed on
December 3 by the Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Adolphe Lumanu
on the pretext of preventing the spread of rumors was lifted
yesterday--with effect as of today. I got an SMS today from my
carrier, VODACOM, advising that SMS are once again "operarional" as of
today and I got to send my first 10 text messages free of charges.
Mobile phone carriers are requesting compensations from the government
over the shutdown. This stupid move by Adolphe Lumanu is worrisome--as
well as the unacknwoledged repeated interruptions of internet
connections whenever riots erupt.
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