The Democratic Republic of Congo announced on Sunday that much
delayed elections to replace President Joseph Kabila would take place in
December 2018, but the opposition demanded the longtime leader step down
sooner.
Elections
were due to take place this year under a deal whereby Kabila would leave office
but repeated wrangling has hobbled the process.
The
election commission said “direct voting” will take place on December 23, 2018,
covering presidential, legislative, regional and local elections, said
Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) official Jean-Pierre Kalamba.
But
the Congolese opposition said the timeframe was not acceptable, insisting that
Kabila quits by the end of this year.
“We
reject the (CENI)
calendar… what interests us right now is the departure of Kabila by December
31, 2017,” said Augustin Kabuya, spokesperson for the main opposition Union for
Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS).
The
electoral commission said provisional results of the presidential election
would not be published until a week after the voting, on December 30 2018, with
definitive results not issued until January 9, 2019.
The
new president will then take office on January 12, 2019, CENI said.
‘Prolonging
the people’s misery’
That
calendar is based on “rationalisation of the electoral system so as to reduce
the costs,” said CENIchief
Corneille Nangaa.
But
senior opposition figure Moise Katumbi dismissed the plan.
“This
predatory regime wants to prolong the instability and misery of the people,”
Katumbi said.
“We
do not accept this fantasy calendar. Stop. Kabila must go,” he tweeted,
demanding a transitional administration without Kabila with elections in
January.
Tensions
have been running high in the central African nation of DRC since Kabila failed to step
down on the expiry of his second and final term last December.
The
electoral commission had previously said that there would be no vote before
early 2019, mainly because of the problems of completing an electoral roll in
the troubled central region of Kasai.
Sunday’s
announcement came 10 days after a visit by US ambassador to the United Nations
Nikki Haley who called for DRC elections
next year.
“This
calendar was drawn up under pressure from the international community and Congolese
civil society,” said Nangaa.
Britain,
France, the EU and the UN, as well as Washington , had been among those calling
for months for an announcement on election dates.
Haley,
in a stark message during her visit to Kinshasa, said that “for every day which
goes by without holding elections, a woman is raped, a child has an unwanted
pregnancy, children are inducted by armed groups”.
Uncertainty
has bred fear of a new eruption of political violence in a vast, poor country
already battling with ethnic divisions and violence in its east.
Demonstrations
have been banned or widely repressed since September 2016.
No comments:
Post a Comment