Most of us associate the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with decades of war- mongering rebels, atrocious levels of state sponsored violence and a place where no sane minded person should dare venture.

These ‘stereotypical’ clichés are to a certain extent true but have been greatly exaggerated by the Western media who have the knack of painting a detrimental picture of black Africa as absolute doom and gloom.

I had the opportunity to deconstruct many of these pre- conceived ideas about the DRC as an international observer for the election mission set up by the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) for the 2006 Presidential and Legislative Elections held on 30th July.

It is important to provide some context about a country which is roughly the size of Western Europe and has a population of about 60 million. The years following independence from Belgium (1960 onwards) were riddled with political violence and instability literally bringing the country to its knees.

Today, the DRC has a population illiteracy estimated at 80 percent where a large majority of its people live (not to say try to survive) on 20 US cents a day in a country that has very little social infrastructure (the whole country has only 300 miles of tarred road). This sad state of affairs is however in stark contradiction to the great natural richness the country possesses.

Indeed, the DRC is known to stock one-third of the world’s cobalt, an abundant number of diamond and gold mines, important reserves of oil and the Congo River is second only to the Amazon River in its potential for generating hydro electric power.

This highly paradoxical situation has brought a number of observers to reflect on the fact that the DRC’s great riches are also its greatest curse as the country’s resources have benefited a very small handful of people leaving the rest in a state of absolute misery.

For many Congolese citizens (from the ordinary street seller to the high powered businessman) the 2006 Presidential and Legislative Elections offer the chance to make a new beginning. No doubt, elections themselves are far from being a panacea but they can significantly contribute to establishing the necessary foundation of basic democratic principles.

In recent years a number of African states have embarked on the road leading to democratization such as the organization of multiparty elections, the official acknowledgement of Opposition parties and / or the adoption of a new electoral model that is more inclusive and representative.

In the case of the Congo, it is strongly believed that the birth of some form of democracy will have positive cascading effects within the countries of the Great Lakes and, if stability is achieved and maintained, the Congo can aspire to become the ‘New South Africa’ of Western Africa.

The 2006 Elections in the Congo have been hailed as a landmark event. It was after 40 years that millions of Congolese were able to vote in the first free and multiparty elections putting an end to the transitional period that started in 2003 after a settlement reached at Sun City, Johannesburg.

In fact, this transitional period saw the DRC under a ‘government of unity’, which established a political system largely known as the 1 + 4 (Joseph Kabila as President and four vice presidents taken from former belligerents and other political oppositions).

Although the life of the ordinary Congolese changed very little under the transitional period, the latter brought in a relative phase of calm and peace and more importantly had the express mandate to organize competitive and genuine multiparty elections within a given time frame.

The organization of the 2006 Elections were indeed a Herculean challenge for the DRC, which had not carried out an official population census in decades nor had any appropriate constitutional or legal framework for the holding of elections.

It is amazing that the whole process – the drafting of the Constitution, the setting up of the Commission Electorale Independente (CEI) and other relevant bodies like the Haute Autorite des Medias (HAM)), the holding of the Constitutional Referendum in December 2005 and the registration of voters were conducted within a period of just over two years.

Indeed, this is a challenge that even a well-established democracy would find hard to deliver on. However, it must be emphasized that the DRC was greatly aided and supported in the organization of its elections by the International Community which is estimated to have contributed some US $ 40 million for the holding of the 2006 Elections.

In addition to that, it is known that the United Nations has set up its biggest and costliest mission ever with more than 17,000 peacekeepers permanently stationed in parts of the country at an annual budget of some US $ 1 billion. The very high rate of illiteracy in the DRC of which mention was made earlier also constituted a major challenge towards ensuring that voters choose their candidates in a free and democratic manner.

This challenge was partly addressed by a massive voter and civic education campaign that started in certain parts of the country as early as mid 2003. Indeed some 100 dedicated civil society organizations as well as the CEI trained and mobilized staff to educate and motivate voters on why and how to vote.

No doubt the dividends of this wide scale operation were visible as voter turnout averaged 70 percent across the country for the 30th July Presidential and Legislative Elections. This motivation to vote can also be partly attributed to the fact that no-one under 40 had ever been given the right to vote.

An interesting fact worth referring to is the strong presence and influence of faith based networks in the DRC and more specifically the Roman Catholic Church which has a vast network spread across the country and has been active ever since the beginning of the crisis in the DRC. The influence that the Roman Catholic Church has on the people of the DRC is significant where approximately 90 percent of the population is fervently Catholic.

As an observer I had the opportunity to talk extensively among others to a number of civil society networks. What struck me was their foresightedness concerning their continued importance and relevance in a post election DRC. Most had developed rigorous and robust methods to ensure that those who are to be democratically elected deliver on their promises of building and reconstructing a country devastated by decades of war and violence.

Another interesting feature of Congolese civil society is the strong presence of women-based networks. Indeed women and girls have been victims of decades of violence and human rights abuse during the conflict years and it is strongly believed that a post conflict DRC cannot be envisaged without creating the necessary voice and space for women.

Of course, the African continent as a whole poses the problematic of entrenched patriarchy that significantly marginalizes the presence of women in key decision-making positions. However, matters seem to be progressing as African states’ signatory to the gender commitments made through the Southern African Development community (SADC) and the African Union (AU) that ensure equal representation between men and women in the governance institutions are having to deliver on these commitments.

In the case of the DRC, the newly adopted Constitution (2006), stipulates in Article 14 that the country commits itself to strive for gender parity in key public institutions. Unfortunately this gender parity feature was not really visible in the list of candidates running for the presidential or legislative elections. Women made up 11 percent of the presidential candidates and 13.5 percent of the legislative candidates.

It must be noted that it was the strong advocacy work done by some of the women-based organizations that was at the heart of the gender parity clause in the DRC Constitution. No doubt they constitute an important presence at the grassroots level and have been very active in organizing and mobilizing the Congolese women to demand due recognition and representation.

Campaigning in Kinshasa where I was based had many of the familiar features of electoral campaigns across Africa: an overpowering presence of money, a visible abuse of state resources and a thinness of political discourse which was more inclined towards inspirational spin than concrete proposals. As mentioned this is not atypical to the DRC but on the contrary is reflective of a general trend gaining politics in Africa and in many parts of the world.

In response to this, several regional organizations have developed guidelines and standards for the conduct of credible, free and legitimate elections within the SADC region. No doubt, the enshrinement of such principles will take some time but once they are absorbed within the political culture of a given country they will ensure the delivery of free and fair elections.

There were numerous accounts of ‘vote-buying’ by certain candidates who gave away T-shirts with their effigy and a free coca-cola to those who attended their political rallies. Whether endorsing a candidate’s T-shirt and drinking the coca-cola offered influenced the voter’s choice cannot be ascertained.

But what I can share with you is a case that was brought to my attention by a network of mediators who were asked to intervene between a woman who was seen wearing a T-shirt bearing the image of one of the presidential candidates and a party agent to which the presidential candidate hailed from. In fact, the main point of contention was when the woman was asked to attend a political gathering by the party agent scheduled for later in the evening she flatly refused mentioning that she wore the T-shirt not due to party affiliation but because she had nothing else to wear.

Indeed, her case reflects the harsh reality encountered by a fair majority of the Congolese people who live in a state of utter dispossession and disenfranchisement and, when handed over free electoral gifts like T-shirts, caps or a coca-cola, take it but this act does not necessarily compromise their voting choice.

Polling day finally arrived and the 25 million registered voters made their way to the 50 000 or so polling stations across this vast country. Indeed it was reassuring to find that none of the much predicted and feared political mayhem occurred and polling day proceeded in a general atmosphere of calm and tolerance.

As I observed the opening of voting in one of the centers of the capital city Kinshasa I was taken in by the expression of the small crowd of voters gathered in the yard when the CEI officials publicly showed them the empty presidential and legislative ballot boxes which were then appropriately sealed. As the first voters proceeded into the respective voting rooms they were guided by the CEI officers who diligently followed procedures and facilitated the voting process. Voters were generally able to cast their votes in a free manner and this seemed to be the general trend across most of the country.

The only ‘hardship’ encountered by voters was the excessively bulky legislative voting bulletins. For a 500-seat parliament there were 9709 candidates contesting the legislative elections. In one of the voting centers, which I visited the legislative bulletin was of poster size, ran for seven pages and had a total of 736 candidates!

<I>The continent as a whole poses the problematic of entrenched patriarchy that significantly marginalizes the place of women in key decision-making positions.</I>

This large number of legislative candidates can be partly attributed to the electoral system used for the election of the 500-member National Assembly - an open-list Proportional Represen-tation (PR). No doubt, many candidates and their political parties (some 200 registered) were also driven by the fact that the 2006 elections were the first multiparty and competitive elections organized after four decades of political restriction and repression.

Voting lasted for eleven uninterrupted hours and immediately after that the counting process started. Counting was conducted by the CEI staff that had officiated the voting exercise and in the presence of party agents, candidates’ representatives, observers and witnesses chosen among voters.

Counting proved to be a very painstaking process especially when it came to the legislative bulletins. The sheer fatigue not to say exhaustion of those who had already been on their feet for more than twenty hours was cruelly felt. The voting center where I observed counting had a sudden power cut that lasted six hours and counting had to be done using a small battery-operated lantern. In fact, certain of the voting centers that I had visiting during the day did not even have electricity and I realized that counting must have been a torturous experience for the staff.

As my colleagues and I left the voting center in the early hours, our hearts poured out to those people who stayed to complete the counting and the necessary administrative procedures in the form of ‘proces verbaux’.

<I>In the case of the RDC, it is strongly believed that the birth of some form of democracy will have positive cascading effects within the countries of the Great Lakes and, if stability is achieved and maintained, it can aspire to become the ‘New South Africa’ of Western Africa.</I>

What struck me was the amazing sense of motivation, dedication and solidarity exhibited by every single person involved in the voting and counting process to ensure that the elections were conducted in the best of conditions and issues of fatigue and hunger were irrelevant – what really mattered was the new destiny awaiting the country and its people.

Once counting had been completed and the results posted outside the different voting rooms in their respective voting centers, the centralised compilation of both the presidential and legislative results began. Reactions to posted results were varied in a society where little or no information ever trickled down to ordinary citizens.

People made their way to the different voting centers in large numbers ‘armed’ with scraps of paper to record the performance of their party / candidate. It was also interesting to note that groups of people had constituted their own informal networks for rallying information concerning the election results and in certain parts of Kinshasa results were signposted on cardboards.

<I>Today, the DRC has a population illiteracy estimated at 80 percent where a large majority of its people live (not to say try to survive) on 20 US cents a day in a country that has very little infrastructure (the whole country has only 300 miles of tarred road).</I>

I also witnessed in one of the voting centers, the explosion of joy of an old lady when she saw that the presidential candidate she supported topped the list. She came over and told me – “I am now sure and certain that these elections have not been tricked … see- my candidate has made it”.

The compilation exercise proved to be yet another logistic challenge as trucks full of ballot papers and ‘proces verbaux’ literally discharged their content in the yards of compilation centers. For many this was cause for concern as sensitive voting material was being exposed but as the days proceeded matters became more manageable.

The compilation center that my team and I visited was a well spaced enclosure with well defined and designated areas through which the results from the different voting centers would be recorded, classified and then finally entered and stored in a specially designed computer software package for onward transfer to the mainframe computer housed in the CEI HQ.

In fact, there had been a lot of suspicion among certain groups (which was to a great extent fuelled by certain political leaders / candidates) concerning this mainframe computer – its whereabouts? was it not a ploy to fix the election results? No doubt this reflects a state of mind created by decades of mistrust, lack of openness and an innate and embedded suspicion of the other.

As I pen down these few thoughts on my experiences, the Presidential results have just been made official. No candidate was able to secure the required 50%+1 majority vote meaning there will be a second Presidential round scheduled on 29th October 2006. No doubt, this second round between the incumbent President Joseph Kabila who won 44.81% of the votes and one of his Vice-Presidents Jean Pierre Bemba who took 20.03% of the vote promises to be eventful as it will require those unsuccessful Presidential candidates and their respective parties to indicate their position vis-à-vis the two contenders in the second round.

As an endnote I would say that observing the elections in the DRC has been a real eye- opening experience. In fact, countries (like Mauritius) who have attained a given level of democracy very often lose the spirit that defines and drives real political struggle and militancy. For me the motivation, solidarity and militancy demonstrated by the Congolese people during these elections should offer us food for thought and demand us to question the comfort zone that we have so naturally fallen into.

Roukaya KASENALLY</B>