by Patson Phiri – SANF 06 No 70
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is headed for a run-off tentatively set for 29 October after incumbent President Joseph Kabila and former rebel leader, Jean-Pierre Bemba, led the polls but failed to amass the required 50 percent-plus-one vote.
The DRC Constitution requires that a presidential candidate must amass 50 percent-plus-one vote of total votes cast in a national election to be declared as president.
Kabila garnered 44.81 percent of votes in the country’s landmark election on 30 July while his closest rival, Bemba, had 20.03 percent.
Veteran politician, Antoine Gizenga, came third with 13.06 percent in this first democratic election since the country’s independence from Belgium in 1960.
The chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Apollinaire Malu Malu, said the country would go for a run-off to decide the winner in an election that attracted over 70 percent of the 25.6 million registered voters.
“Having won the most votes, Joseph Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba are invited to take part in the second round,” Malu Malu said in a televised broadcast from Kinshasa on 20 August.
The results remain provisional until confirmed by the Supreme Court. The final tally of the first round results is expected before 31 August.
The holding of the second round of elections will delay the inauguration of the president-elect, which was initially set for 10 September. This will now take place on 10 December.
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. The parliamentary candidates were contesting for 189 constituencies in this mineral rich Central African country that is also a member of the 14-member SADC group.
Kabila has been leading a transitional government put together via a 2003 power-sharing agreement signed in South Africa, which ended a civil war.
The election was a major step for the people of the DRC to put behind memories of the civil war and work towards the economic development of the country.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has described the DRC polls as peaceful, credible and transparent.
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 the polls.
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 also sucked in three other SADC countries – Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe – and two from the Great Lakes region.
The conduct of the election in this vast country has been complex due to poor road network and pockets of violence in the eastern parts.
