President Joseph Kabila will promulgate the new Constitution of the DR Congo on Saturday, February 18. The upcoming event is the main focus of today's Kinshasa press.

"Joseph Kabila [will] promulgate the Constitution of the Third Republic" next Saturday, in the presence of some "important guests," La Référence Plus announces. Approved by 84% of Congolese voters in a referendum last December, "this Constitution, which calls for a semi-presidential system in a strongly decentralised unitary State, represents the first step towards ending a fragile transition launched in 2003, after a five-year war that drew in six neighbouring countries and has killed nearly four million people directly or indirectly," Le Phare notes. Furthermore, the Fundamental Law, which is "the fruit of a consensus among the [former] belligerents and unarmed forces (...), marks the rebirth of the DR Congo," according to L'Observateur.

Yet, ahead of the new Constitution promulgation ceremony where guests will include several foreign heads of state, some "constitutional experts are arguing that promulgating the new text [would be] in conflict with Article 136 of the [current] Transitional Constitution which allows the officials and institutions of the transition to stay in office till the end of the transitional period," La Référence Plus notes.

Despite that, Le Phare hopes the promulgation ceremony next Saturday will constitute "a giant step toward national reconciliation – something that the Congolese people have several years been longing for". It would be "unfortunate should the event next Saturday mobilise outsiders more, as this would tend to give credit to the view that, in the DRC, legitimacy is acquired from outside partners rather than popular adhesion from inside...," Le Phare warns.

What can be said with certainty is that promulgation of the Constitution will pave the way for Parliament "to adopt the [draft] electoral law which will determine the nature of [the coming] presidential, parliamentary and local elections [in Congo] – the first free and transparent" polls since the country gained independence in 1960, Le Phare says. And once the electoral law is passed, Le Phare adds, "the Independent Electoral Commission [IEC] will set up the final electoral calendar and proceed to the registration of candidates." Meanwhile, the IEC has established a "provisional calendar" which foresees "the first round of the presidential and parliamentary elections on April 29 and the second round of the presidential poll on June 2 (...)," according to Le Palmarès.

The electoral law will be up for debate starting tomorrow in Parliament before its adoption. "The plenary session on Thursday will be dedicated to examining some lingering points including the question of the level of education required for presidential candidates and candidates in national and regional parliamentary elections (...)," La Référence Plus reports. Ahead of that debate, meanwhile, "two camps have emerged: supporters of a requirement for candidates for high public office to hold a diploma and defenders of the view that competence and moral integrity should be enough qualification for high public office," according to L'Observateur .

Regarding the coming elections, the fact still remains that "only [the creation of] a safe environment can ensure that they would actually take place ...A safe environment should be conceived as the existence of an integrated army and police with dissuasive strength - ones that are able to ensure the security of people and their property as well as the security of the institutions of the Republic while protecting the integrity of the territory against any destabilisation attempt from inside or outside," Le Potentiel notes. Striking a similar note, L'Observateur, quoting from an International Crisis Group report, writes "security sector reform must be the priority for Kinshasa and its partners within the international community."