by Patson Phiri – SANF 06 No 61
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has described recent elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo as “peaceful, credible and transparent”.
The DRC held its first democratic elections in more than 45 years on 30 July, the culmination of a three-year peace process that ended the Congolese civil war in 2002.
A total of 32 presidential candidates were vying for office, and more than 9,700 others contested for 500 legislative seats in the National Assembly.
In a preliminary statement issued following the conclusion of the DRC elections, a 200-member SADC Election Observer Mission (SEOM) congratulated the Congolese for their maturity in conducting polls that were “peaceful, credible, well managed and transparent”.
John Pendani, head of the SADC observer team and Namibia’s Minister of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development, noted that despite the complexity of the process in a country emerging from armed conflict, the conduct of the polls had been impressive.
DRC is transiting from a long and protracted civil war that sucked in several other countries in southern Africa and the Great Lakes region.
Pendani said the mission was impressed with the way the elections were organised, particularly given that the vast SADC member state had initially faced resource and infrastructure constraints.
“The people of Democratic Republic of the Congo have expressed their will in an impressive manner that will remain in the annals of history of not only the people of Congo but also of Africa and the world as a whole,” read part of the statement.
“Their civil behaviour and enthusiasm demonstrated during the campaign and vote-casting process will go a long way in contributing to the consolidation of democracy and political stability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the SADC region,” it added.
The SADC team commended the Congolese for adhering to the principles of political tolerance in a highly diversified country.
This, in SEOM’s view, “bodes well for nurturing the birth of a culture that tolerates multi-partyism as an essential building block for democracy.”
It was the view of the SADC observer team that the Independent Electoral Commission, which was responsible for managing the DRC electoral process, had professionally discharged its duties and showed a high sense of gender equity and youth representation in the election process.
“This effort deserves commendation and the Democratic Republic of the Congo should be encouraged to stay steadfast in this path,” Pendani said.
SADC also pledged commitment to supporting the DRC in its continuous effort to re-build peace and security, national reconciliation, reconstruction and development.
The SADC election observer mission to the DRC was officially launched on 26 June.
The mission comprised representatives from Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique, United Republic of Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The SADC sent two components of monitors; the civilian electoral observers and the military liaison officers.
In addition to the observer mission, the regional body also sent other teams to assess the situation in DRC prior to the elections.
These included a mission by the ministers of foreign affairs and defence who visited the DRC under the auspices of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation in December 2005.
The other group involved the troika of SADC ministers of defence also under the same organ in April.
Pendani said the missions were also complemented by the working visits of the Executive Secretary of SADC, Tomaz Augusto Salomão.
All these missions were aimed at assessing and evaluating the preparations for the elections and encouraging the transitional government headed by Joseph Kabila to remain steadfast on efforts to pursue peace.
The formal SADC observer mission was also preceded by an advance team composed of diplomatic missions of SADC member states accredited to the DRC.
The diplomatic missions laid the foundation for the formal and institutional election observer mission.
