MONUC Press Review - 13 March 2006 [1]

10 Mar 2009

MONUC Press Review - 13 March 2006

The Kinshasa press on Monday, 13 March 2006 broaches various topics.

Continuing internal consultations it opened this past weekend, the Rassemblement congolais pour la Democratie (RCD, Congolese Rally for Democracy) "is preparing to decide to pull out of the transition's institutions", L'Avenir reports. On Friday already, L'Avenir notes, government "ministers from the party [of Vice President Azarias Ruberwa] boycotted the Council of Ministers" meeting in Kinshasa. The RCD is contemplating quitting the transition process because of "the government's refusal to establish Minembwe, Bunyakiri and the region of Buzi as [administrative] territories," according to Le Phare. Quoting Azarias Ruberwa who has described the government's refusal as "unacceptable and incomprehensible discrimination," La Référence Plus notes this refusal means that not only will the entities in question "be removed from the list of territories and, therefore, will not appear in the list of electoral districts, but also [that] the local population will have no representation at the national, provincial and local levels of government."

In any case, "[t]hreatening [a pullout] because one's call for the establishment of some administrative entity has been met with refusal appears to be a delaying tactic calculated to hamper the holding of elections in this country", according to L'Avenir. And if the RCD "is not really prepared to show flexibility on this issue, then it will figure prominently on the list of those political parties that are afraid of the elections and hope for a political future based on political intrigue," L'Avenir analyses.

Set to take place on 18 June 2006, the first round the presidential election will see the participation Antoine Gizenga who has received his party's nomination as candidate. "The veteran politician, Gizenga, wants to use his legendary wisdom and political maturity for Congo's reconstruction," L'Observateur says of the octogenarian leader of the Parti des Lumumbists Unifiés (PALU, Unified Lumumbists Party). In the same connection, the leader of the Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social (UDPS, Union for Democracy and Social Progress), "Etienne Tshisekedi is under some pressure to present his candidacy," Le Potentiel notes. "Even in the face the hostility of numerous opponents, the UDPS and its leader no longer have any excuse to disappoint millions of party supporters and its political allies," according to Le Potentiel. Should it be otherwise, "all the [UDPS's] rhetoric on rule of law, and social, economic and distributive justice ...would prove to be nonsense, hollow words...," Le Potentiel concludes.

Meanwhile, "it is now time for registration of candidacies (...) Presidential candidates are to register in Kinshasa, and National Assembly candidates in the 28 [designated] sites across the country," reports La Référence Plus, adding that this registration period is to run from "10 to 23 March 2006." Indeed, "[t]he time has come for those who have been speaking on behalf of the Congolese people to show what they are capable of," L'Observateur notes in its editorial. L'Observateur identifies "two categories of contenders seeking to win the people's votes." "There are those who have always believed in the electoral process on one hand and on the other hand those who gave this process no chance as if to suggest that there was no other fate for the DRC than continuing to go downhill," L'Observateur writes.

Press Reviews 2006 [2]