Independent Electoral Commission's response to UDPS request concerning the reopening of identification and registration offices and UDPS reaction are the dominant issues in today's local press.

"The head of the Independent Electoral Commission, Father Malu-Malu gives a negative reply to UDPS request, says LA REFERENCE PLUS, echoing IEC's explanation that "Transition calendar's constraints will not permit the reopening of the registration centres," in a news conference held Saturday 7 January 2006. "The head of IEC declared registrations shall however proceed in Equateur and Bandundu provinces due to exceptional circumstances," says the paper. According to LA TEMPETE DES TROPIQUES, Father Apollinaire Malu-Malu means UDPS members who failed to register must "travel to Bandundu and Equateur provinces to get registered!" LE PHARE, for its part, refers to Father Malu Malu's reply as "a polite refusal."

Father Malu-Malu further declared, "Any candidate who failed to register will be allowed to do it when filing their candidacy for the upcoming polls," writes LA REFERENCE PLUS. The head of IEC was then answering a press question about Mr. Tshisekedi's registration, adds FORUM
DES AS.
"This is a political competition. Candidates must win the confidence of the 25 million voters," said the head of IEC. "There is no alternative but either to commit oneself to complying with the constitutional calendar or a more flexible calendar to go beyond the constitutional timing," underscores LA REFERENCE PLUS.

UDPS reacts to IEC's reply, writes the paper, indicating, UDPS communiqué refers to IEC as "an irresponsible body" for handling "with a disconcerting thoughtlessness such a highly sensitive issue for the nation's history." UDPS denounces "IEC's established allegiance to (...)" , an institution "supposed to be democratic (...but which) has made a political decision beyond its competence." UDPS therefore denounces new attempt of its exclusion, says LE PHARE on its front page. "Tshisekedi sneezes at IEC," writes LE PALMARES. "For UDPS, IEC is no longer neutral," says the paper. UDPS-CEI: New trial of strength relaunched, writes FORUM
DES AS.

Referring to "IEC's refusal to register UDPS members, LA TEMPETE DES TROPIQUES writes Malu-Malu is playing with fire. "Even though his decision was linked to budgetary constraints, it is all the more surprising that Malu Malu has opposed UDPS request without previously consulting with the donors, represented here by the International Commission for the Follow-up of the Transition known as CIAT," says the paper. "The IEC attitude is perceived by UDPS as an act of bad faith and a deliberate willingness to hurt a party that has proven its popularity on the occasion of the constitutional referendum that registered a low voter turnout across the country following its (UDPS) appeal for boycott," writes the paper. UDPS therefore calls on the International Community "which sponsors the ongoing process in DRC," to exert "pressures on the IEC, if it wants the transition to culminate in peaceful elections." The party also calls on the head of IEC to "be impartial and fair in order to preserve his credibility and good political and social climate to prevail at the end of the transition."

LA TEMPETE DES TROPIQUES warns that otherwise, Father Malu-Malu will bear alone "the weight of a failed transition before God and History. Let him therefore choose between God and Hell!."

L'AVENIR for its part says "Etienne Tshisekedi is caught in his own trap," accusing him of never abiding by the established rules or principles: "He only respects laws that are in his interest of his party's interest (...) whatever the constraints." For this paper, UDPS is "the cause of his own misfortune."

According to LE PHARE, UDPS decision to participate in the electoral process reflects the hypocrisy of some Congolese political players. Under the headline Trial of strength between
Kinshasa
and
New York
, the paper reports how diplomats posted to
Kinshasa
are "accused of having backed the all-inclusive nature," by trying "to deal with UDPS as a separate entity" and promising Tshisekedi the reopening of registration offices and some key positions within the IEC and the High Media Authority (HAM). "Such alarming information reached
New York
," says the paper, and shocked "the UN Secretary-General." Yet, the paper recalls, Mr. William Swing, the Special Representative of Kofi Annan for the DRC expressed the hope "to see everybody embark upon the process, including the latecomers." The paper also recalls the content of the twentieth report issued by the UN Secretary-General who insisted on an all-inclusive transition thereby stressing the need for "the participation of all the political players in order to avoid protests likely to undermine the DRC stability and peace, even during the post-electoral period; this is contingent upon the cooperation of all the political parties and population's approval of the final results of the elections," says LE PHARE,