Tired of a transition that has dragged on, traders at Virunga market at the foot of the towering Nyiragongo volcano in Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) plan to vote ”yes” massively in Sunday’s referendum on the country’s future Constitution.
Whilst admitting freely they have not had the chance to read the text they intend to adopt, they say they are tired of the current transition in which DRC has one president and four vice-presidents.
”We’re being forced to vote ‘yes’ when we haven’t even read the text,” complained Faustin Kanyama, a young electronics salesman in a red apron and a cap emblazoned with ”I luv Congo”.
”Nobody’s forcing you! It’s just that we have to move forward, and to move forward we have to say ‘Yes’,” disagreed a market official who introduced himself only as Guillin.
”I’m really happy about it. I’m going to vote ‘yes’,” Balembi Kangailamia told Agence France Presse, jigging around in excitement in front of his hardware stall.
This market was built on top of the lava flow that engulfed most of this lakeside town when Nyiragongo erupted in January 2002, displacing about 300 000 people.
Each vehicle that goes past whips up clouds of fine black dust that sticks to the skin. Little wooden houses, some with gardens growing on the lava, are springing up all around, built by people who lost everything in the eruption.
”We’ve had a hard time of it here, first because of the war, then because of the volcano, and we’ve never had any help,” said Katy, the secretary of the market’s committee.
”Before the war people didn’t get paid, but at least we lived in security. Now women get raped and men get kidnapped by unknown groups. Life is hard for the people of Goma,” complained Jean Kasereka.
All those questioned said that all they knew of the Constitution was what they had picked up from the various radio programmes intended to explain it to the large sections of the Congolese population that are illiterate.
Mapendu, a 23-year-old rural development student shopping at the market, was one of those who said he thought it very important that all literate Congolese should be given a copy of the text.
But all those questioned agreed on one thing: the need to move away from the transition structure called ”one plus four”, that is one president flanked by four vice-presidents.
”We need one president, not five presidents,” said Katy, adamant that ”nearly everyone here on the market will vote ‘yes’.”
”We’re going to vote ‘yes’ to put an end to the one plus four”, crowed Mbusa Bake, a very vocal stallholder sporting an orange and grey tracksuit and blue plastic sandals.
The majority of DRC’s political parties have urged voters to adopt the future Constitution. Sunday’s vote is the first in a whole series scheduled for 2006 and destined to bring the DRC out of the fragile political transition started in 2003 after a five-year war that sucked in armies from several countries in the region.
Despite the theoretical end to the war in mid-2003, eastern DRC has been plagued by persistent low-level violence, much of it directed against the civilian population, ever since.
There were signs on Saturday that the radio programs given over to the referendum might have missed some of Goma’s inhabitants, who seemed to have trouble distinguishing between the referendum on the Constitution and the forthcoming presidential election.
”We’re going to vote for [DRC President] Joseph [Kabila] on Sunday. He’s the father of the nation. He’ll bring us national unity”, exclaims Rachel, fired with enthusiasm as she sits among the plantain bananas that help her eke out a living for her six children. – Sapa-AFP