Kinshasa, DRC – This Wednesday, tens of millions of Congolese residents vote in one of the vital anticipated elections of 2023. The high-stakes vote might symbolize the second peaceable civilian-to-civilian transition within the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s historical past since independence from Belgium in June 1960.
There have been mounting issues about transparency, particularly after the European Union observer mission pulled out and lots of of hundreds of individuals in areas within the risky east are unable to vote due to spiralling insecurity from armed teams.
Al Jazeera spoke to Denis Kadima, president of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) on its readiness for the election, within the capital, Kinshasa.
Excerpts from the interview:
Al Jazeera: How ready are you for the elections on Wednesday?
Denis Kadima: The course of goes nicely. We have confronted numerous challenges. The first got here as a result of we have been appointed very late – 28 months of delay in appointing our group made it very laborious for us. But now we have been capable of do every part that’s required to run an election, beginning with voter registration as much as the place we at the moment are.
And now we have managed to do it in a brief interval as a result of our election calendar may be very restrictive, and we couldn’t waste a single day. Otherwise, the method might be at risk. We have made enormous progress. We have deployed in many of the nation.
Of course, there are all the time areas which might be laborious to entry. In a few of the provinces, you will have swamps, mountains, rivers, no good roads or bridges, and so forth. So that’s why, at some stage, I requested the federal government to provide us helicopters so we are able to transfer sooner.
And these have solely began coming now, which is a bit late, however every part that comes our manner, we take it. Broadly talking, I can say that regardless of these main challenges, the method is on monitor. But it is a cyclical challenge. Five years in the past, throughout that election, we have been speaking about the identical points.
Al Jazeera: What do you assume must be performed going ahead to guarantee that CENI is ready successfully to deal with an election like this?
Kadima: First of all, the appointment of the fee is a really prolonged and sophisticated course of that may paralyse the nation. So we have to have an easier manner of doing it.
Besides that, we are able to’t be holding elections through the wet season. So they need to push it towards July, when it’s dry season.
Apart from that, in the long run, we will need to have higher infrastructure as a result of every part is finished by airplane; as a result of the nation is huge and the roads are usually not good. In addition to that, funding has been coming slowly and this has resulted in us being unable to ship the products by sea.
We do virtually every part by air and that comes with an enormous value. We want to attract classes from one course of to the opposite and discover the time to right by studying from what’s occurred earlier than.
But we don’t all the time have every part that we wish. This 12 months, the federal government had fairly some treasury issues. So that’s why it occurred that manner.
Al Jazeera: So with the assets that you’ve got, do you assume that you may pull off a reputable election?
Kadima: If you give me $100, I’ll run an excellent election, however when you solely give me $50, I’ll nonetheless run an election. We attempt to do as a lot as we are able to to carry high quality elections. One of our aims is to enhance from one cycle to the following. We can’t show the weaknesses of the previous. Of course, if now we have cash earlier, we are able to do higher.
If it comes late, the standard might endure. But finally, we’re a creating nation. We nonetheless must maintain our elections which prices an excessive amount of. Some of the issues, if they’re performed on time, will value much less.
Al Jazeera: Some Congolese have complained in regards to the electoral course of to date.
Kadima: I feel they’re being unfair. There are political teams on this nation that aren’t prepared for elections as a result of they by no means imagine that we’ll pull it off in such a brief interval. Their technique all alongside has been to discredit the method; it doesn’t matter what we do, they’ll by no means acknowledge what we’ve performed. There are even civil society teams, whose leaders, a lot of whom have been candidates for this place I’m in and so they are usually subjective.
The Catholic Church has its personal candidates. The Protestant Church had its personal candidates. But I used to be the fortunate one, and possibly they only wish to show some extent to indicate that they have been proper once they didn’t need me. But it was only a political recreation during which I had the higher hand. But I imagine that one of the simplest ways to evaluate us is to check the place we’re coming from: 2011, 2018 and 2023.
Throughout this course of, you will notice numerous openness. We have been very inclusive. People who’re in exile, unable to submit their candidacy papers, at present they’re candidates.
We have … gone from 35,000 candidates in 2018 to 100,000 candidates this 12 months. That’s how open it’s. We really useful to parliament to make long-term commentary of elections a part of the authorized framework as a result of we imagine observers have a task to play within the transparency of the method.
We have been those who instructed individuals that there have been 3.3 million individuals who shouldn’t have been on the voters’ record as a result of they’ve registered greater than as soon as, some are underage, and so forth. For the outcomes, we’re going to publish them, polling station by polling station. We’ve tried very laborious and you’ll see that the criticism that we get tends to not be all the time real.
In an electoral course of, if you wish to see if the fee is working pretty or not, it’s worthwhile to see if the issues occurring through the course of are affecting just some teams and never others. If you have a look at each drawback we’ve had, it has affected the entire nation equally and once we remedy it, we additionally remedy it equally. And I feel many are appreciative, aside from these politicians who’ve determined that they want this course of to be blocked to allow them to have some type of dialogue that can culminate within the formation of a authorities of nationwide unity. I don’t assume this nation must undergo that type of uncertainty.
Al Jazeera: Some politicians requested the Constitutional Court for postponement of the elections and that has been denied. Is that one thing you’ll take into account if, in these few days, every part shouldn’t be in place?
Kadima: We don’t need postponement just because on this nation we should construct a routine of holding elections periodically but additionally on time. There will all the time be issues to handle even when they offer us six extra months as a result of it could be an issue of funding or safety. There will all the time be some issues, however we should transfer ahead.
I’m not saying that we should neglect elements of the method simply to satisfy the deadline. We have performed the utmost with the assets that we acquired inside the timeframe that we had, which was quick. [But] the nation has extra to realize by holding to the date than if we needed to postpone.
Many of those that are saying postpone, if it occurs, they’ll be the primary to face up and say, oh, you shouldn’t have postponed after which they’ll create extra issues. There will all the time be some issues, however we’ll handle them as they unfold.
Al Jazeera: In the east, 6.5 million individuals are displaced and plenty of have been unable to register or return house to vote. What do you say to this?
Kadima: The regulation, the way in which it’s designed, you will have broadly two forms of displaced individuals. The first group is made up of these individuals who go to their kinfolk. Those ones we register as in the event that they have been residents of these locations. But those that are in IDP camps are registered and allotted to the world they got here from.
As a consequence, as a result of they’re purported to be in these camps quickly, they’re purported to vote at their properties. But sadly, the state of affairs grew to become even worse and so they discovered themselves operating once more and it’s undecided that they’ve gone again to these camps. They might have gone to another locations. It has simply made it very sophisticated for us to hint them again. But the underside line is once we get well peace, they could have missed the presidential election, however they’ll be capable to take part within the [elections to] National Assembly, provincial assemblies, and native councils as nicely.
That’s the value to pay, however as a rustic, we’re the sufferer. We can’t be blamed for what occurred to our countrymen and girls.
Al Jazeera: How do you keep truthful to everybody concerned as CENI president?
Kadima: Everyone will all the time blame you for one thing. It’s numerous strain and accountability. With that variety of individuals, 100,000 candidates, solely a pair thousand individuals might be elected.
All these others will hate us as a result of they received’t make it. No one ever accepts defeat. So these are the realities. But it’s a part of the tradition that we have to construct alongside the way in which. We must make elections a routine the place individuals perceive that I could lose now, [but] in 5 years, if I be taught from my mistake, I’ll win. And the extra we do it, the extra individuals will begin internalising such democratic [principles].
The interview has been barely edited for brevity.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/19/qa-dr-congo-electoral-commission-chair?traffic_source=rss
