The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) long-delayed elections have been pushed back again, at least week beyond the earlier scheduled June 18 date, an Electoral Commission spokesperson said on Tuesday.
The vote is to be the first in decades in this sprawling and war-ravaged Central African country. The DRC has repeatedly set back the vote as logistical problems plague the process.
Electoral Commission spokesperson Marie-Rose Kambere said the DRC needs more time to process candidate applications after granting a 10-day extension for such presidential and parliamentary filings on Thursday. Only about 400 people had paid the $250 fee to contest the 500-seat Parliament by then, according to Electoral Commission officials. About 30 presidential hopefuls have registered.
”The 10-day delay for the deposit of presidential dossiers will impact the electoral calendar and delay the elections from the current date of June 18,” Kambere said.
She said that polls are likely to be scheduled between June 25 and July 2. ”We will announce the new calendar after April 2.”
A spokesperson for veteran opposition-party candidate Etienne Tshisekedi said the delay may create a window for Tshisekedi to enter the presidential race. Tshisekedi, who originally planned to boycott the election, has said he will now run, but only if voter registration is reopened so his supporters can enrol. Many of Tshisekedi’s followers missed the original registration deadline because of his boycott call.
”We believe the Electoral Commission has announced these delays to allow voter enrolment booths to reopen and negotiations to continue,” said Jean-Baptiste Bomanza, a spokesperson for Tshisekedi’s party.
The Electoral Commission, though, has refused Tshisekedi’s request for more voter-registration time, insisting that would be costly and delay elections further.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan met Tshisekedi last week and stressed in speeches during his visit to the country that the elections must be as inclusive as possible, a condition of the 2002 peace deals that Tshisekedi signed.
Elections were initially set to occur by June 2005, but poor planning and legislative problems delayed the vote. Officials then set a March deadline and finally decided on the June date in February.
The voting is being organised by a transitional government that was established in 2003 following peace deals that ended the nation’s devastating 1998-2002 war, a conflict that drew in armies from six nations. The transitional Constitution lapses on June 30.
The DRC, particularly eastern regions, remains restive, complicating plans for the vote. European Union governments last week agreed to send hundreds of troops in support of UN peacekeepers in the DRC for the elections.
The mission, meant to back DRC police in keeping order during and after the vote, is due to deploy ahead of the expected June elections.
On a visit to the European Parliament on Tuesday, the head of the DRC’s electoral commission, Apollinaire Malu-Malu, urged the EU to ensure the force is ”well equipped … to act as a proper deterrent”. He said the EU force, which will include about 450 soldiers in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, with about 1 000 outside the country on standby, will be expected to ”stay for several months” after the election results are announced.
The European Parliament is also expected to send a team of election observers, EU officials said.
At the European Parliament, Malu-Malu also asked for funds to ensure voters have all necessary information ahead of the elections. He did not elaborate on the additional amount needed, but called the $40-million budgeted insufficient.
Malu-Malu also called for government authorities to make sure that all candidates get equal air time on radio stations. — Sapa-AP