10 Mar 2009

MONUC Press Review - 5 December 2005

The main focus of Monday's Kinshasa press is on the referendum vote scheduled for 18 December 2005.

The referendum campaign "officially started on 2 December, as initially foreseen by the law," Le Potentiel reports. And already, since Saturday, "proponents of a 'yes' vote and 'no' supporters have been confronting each other," according to La Référence Plus. The former camp is mainly composed of "the parties now in power [PPRD, MLC, RCD] and allied political and social groups, [whereas] the latter camp comprises opposition political parties and social forces in support of change," La Tempête des Tropiques notes. 'Yes' proponents consider that "it is the best interests of the Congolese people to endorse the country's future fundamental law, because its content is balanced," Le Potentiel explains. As viewed by their opponents, "the draft constitution, as it now stands, is a hybrid, ambivalent document and [it] contains several dark areas (...). In this draft, power is centralised and one notes therein some lightness [of proposals] on the economic front."

Despite that, "the [Congolese] population will massively vote 'Yes'," writes Le Potentiel, citing President Joseph Kabila. This is supported by a survey that a local polling institution conducted between 10 and 27 November. Polling " a sample of 1000 Congolese nationwide, Berci [found] 54 % of the respondents to be in favour of a 'yes' vote, with 37% abstentions and 10% in favour of a 'no' vote," Forum des As recalls.

However, the fact remains that today, a few days before the constitutional referendum is held, there is "no perceptible glimmer of hope" that Etienne Tshisekedi's party, UDPS, will participate in the vote. The reason is that "the international community can no longer give in to Etienne Tshisekedi's whims, [as expressed through] the demands contained in the memo that the UDPS submitted to the [UN] Security Council during the Council's latest visit to the DRC," notes Le Potentiel, citing the European Union Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel. This seems to point to "the failure of the political consultations [that were] envisaged between the opposition and the actors of the transition in a bid to get the UDPS to join the current electoral process," according to Le Potentiel.

In a further development, during a debate in the Transitional Parliament's higher chamber on the draft electoral law, with the participation of the Interior Minister, "the senators question[ed] the registered voters lists presented by the Independent Electoral Commission," L'Observateur reports. Specifically, the senators consider it "implausible for Province Orientale, which, since 1960, has been known to be the most populated of the DRC, to have less registered voters than South Kivu province," L'Observateur explains.

In an interview published in the Belgian newspaper Le Soir, President Joseph Kabila said he was "quite disappointed by the CIAT [French acronym for International Committee to Support the Transition], because what [the body] had published in a communiqué, it could have expressed during our meetings," according to Le Potentiel. In a recent statement, the CIAT "criticised the lack of commitment on the part of the [DRC] Transitional Government, particularly regarding the payment of soldiers (...). The government responded in very strong terms, accusing [William] Swing and peer ambassadors of neo-colonialism and a subjection attempt," Le Palmarès recalls.

Press Reviews 2005