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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