Following an MP's request, the session was broadcast live by the National Radio and Television known as RTNC, to avoid "repeating the error of having the majority of the population vote a constitution they did not know due to lack of sensitization," notes the paper. MPs raised several issues, notably the organisation of the polls and the eligibility requirements. The paper particularly refers to the security amount to be paid by the candidate running for the presidency, say 22 million Congolese Francs, equivalent of US$ 50,000, decried and referred to as "a privilege to the embezzlers of the public funds to the detriment of honest candidates who would not have that amount; the amount must be reviewed downwards," the MP said. The choice being generally made on the proportional lists, "It was difficult to decide between the supporters of the closed and the opened lists. Generally, the majority were in favour of the opened lists, arguing that the population would vote individuals rather than the parties represented by electoral lists," highlights LE PHARE. L'OBSERVATEUR, for its part, says MPs have rejected the closed and mixed lists.

"RCD (Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie) was the only party in favor of the closed lists," says L'AVENIR., explaining that the party meant "to consider the DRC's realities and facilitate the polling since the population does not have electoral culture and to facilitate the elections." The paper further indicates MPs came under heavy pressures from the International Community which "pushed for the closed or mixed lists," notes L'AVENIR.

LE POTENTIEL proposes a number of questions to be answered by the Candidates for the Presidential Office live on television: "To explain their vision of the DRC future up to 2010; To explain their policy on both the educated and uneducated youth; To explain their action plans for their terms of office on the urban and rural areas (...); The length of asphalt roads they would build or rehabilitate; The number of jobs they would create." LE POTENTIEL publishes the following tentative list of candidates: Jean-Pierre Bemba, Azarias Ruberwa, Nzanga Mobutu, J.O. Ngalamulume, Théodore Ngoy, Pierre Pay Pay, Gérard Kamanda, Katebe Katoto, Etienne Tshisekedi and Joseph Kabila.

Laurent Nkundabatware poses a real threat. Armed men attacked a FARDC position Wednesday 18 January 2006 in Runyonyi, a locality situated about 85 km North of Goma, North-Kivu, reports LE POTENTIEL, quoting Colonel Jean-Marie She Kasikila, commander of the 5th FARDC brigade based in Rutshuru and several press agencies and international radios. "We have been attacked by troops in the pay of the ex-General Laurent Nkundabatware, backed by the troops of the 63rd battalion of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (APR)," declared colonel Kasikila.

Laurent Nkunda briefly occupied the town of Bukavu, South-Kivu on June 2004, "pretending to fly to the rescue of his community members, "threatened" by Kinshasa," recalls LA TEMPETE DES TROPIQUES. "Laurent Nkundabatware, Congolese of Tutsi origin, RCD member, was sentenced by a military court, removed from the army and placed under an international arrest warrant. He ever since withdrew with his weapons and troops to Masisi, North Kivu, from where he threatened to overthrow the government in Kinshasa," writes LE POTENTIEL. "MONUC has not found him yet while Kigali keeps providing him with weapons." MONUC troops should pursue their mission with more determination rather than boasting the repatriation of "12,704 foreign ex-combatants including their dependents." MONUC has the responsibility to secure the elections scheduled for April 2006, recalls the paper.

To remedy such situations, MONUC must back the FARDC to "effectively neutralize not only foreign combatants (Rwandans, Ugandans and Burundians), but as well as dissidents such as Nkundabatware." It therefore calls on the International Committee for the Follow-up of the Transition (CIAT), the Security Council and the African Union to spare the province of Kivu another "Srebrenica."

LE POTENTIEL denounces what it refers to as "bias and complicity" from some DRC partners." Kanyabayonga and other zones were attacked while MONUC could not see it. "Today (...) again two localities are occupied when MONUC does not see anything," exactly as when the town of Bukavu was captured by the same officer before. LE POTENTIEL says "it is time for MONUC, which has a role to play in securing the DRC territory to work for a definite peace in DRC. (...) to justify its presence on its territory." Otherwise, the paper warns, "it will face the wrath of the Congolese people after the Ethiopians and Ivorians."