MONUC Press Review - 27 November 2006

The Supreme Court in the DRC is due to announce today its decision on losing candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba's legal challenge to the outcomes of the 29 October presidential runoff, according to Kinshasa press on Monday.

After two days of hearings being held at the Foreign Affairs Ministry on Bemba's complaint against the election results, "it is finally this Monday, 27 November 2006, at 5:00 p.m [local time] that the Supreme Court [SC] is to hand down its verdict," according to L'Observateur. The presiding judge on Saturday announced the Court would reach its decision today, reports the paper, noting that such decision will "put an end to speculations and rumours of all kinds."

At the hearing last Saturday, Le Palmarès notes, the team of lawyers representing Bemba's MLC party "twice walked out" of the courtroom in the middle of proceedings. According to Le Phare, the walkouts were staged "to protest against the Court's refusal to declare admissible the petition challenging the competence of two of the judges on the panel for their alleged family ties to President Joseph Kabila...". The protesting lawyers also cited "the late hour and a concern at insecurity due, according to them, to the heavy presence of Republic Guard elements within the Foreign Affairs Ministry compound," Le Phare goes on saying.

However, Le Palmarès, quoting legal experts, notes: "Once a party has participated in the initial proceedings, its subsequent boycott of the rest of the trial is absolutely inconsequential." This is why, despite the walkouts on Saturday, the Court still proceeded to hear "the final pleas by lawyers representing the Independent Electoral Commission and [Joseph Kabila's] PPRD party," La Référence Plus explains. The public prosecutor asked "the Court to dismiss [Bemba's] claims as groundless... [and] to confirm the provisional election results [as published] by the Independent Electoral Commission," according to Le Palmarès.

So "we are heading towards the confirmation of the provisional results which were announced on 15 November, showing a victory for incumbent President Joseph Kabila," L'Avenir anticipates.

Whoever wins the election, it is "the wish of the whole population and the international community to see the two candidates, Joseph Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba, accept the Supreme Court's verdict...especially given that on their attitude will depend the course of events to come," Le Potentiel writes.

Meanwhile, in another development, La Référence Plus reports that in the east of the DRC, "[dissident general] Laurent Nkunda's men having captured Sake village are now at the gates of Goma town, after battling [government] FARDC troops". As a result, "a movement of panic was palpable in the provincial capital of North Kivu last night," and "FARDC Land Force chief of staff, General Gabriel Amisi, has been dispatched to Goma to negotiate a cessation of fighting," La Référence Plus says.