DRC: Countdown to elections

The first elections in 40 years are now scheduled to take place in the DRC on July 30, it was announced this week. Joseph Kabila, former taxi driver and president since the 2001 assassination of his father Laurent Kabila, will be one of 33 presidential hopefuls, while 9,587 candidates will stand for 500 seats in the senate and national assembly. Hopes are that elections will end years of war which some predictions say have claimed 3.9 million lives. Pambazuka News questioned Ernest Wamba dia Wambia on what to expect from the elections.

Pambazuka News: The date for DRC elections – June 18 – was postponed and the latest date put forward has been the end of July. Given the current circumstances in which the DRC finds itself, are elections likely to take place at all?

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba: The latest date for DRC elections has been set at July 30. It is most probably going to be changed again. Most of the political actors are unhappy about how the elections calendar is being fixed, without prior political consensus from all actors. Voices are being heard saying that elections are not likely to take place as planned. Others think that by June 30 - when the Transition was set to end, troubles are likely. Tshisekedi’s UDPS (Pambazuka News note : Étienne Tshisekedi was a former Prime Minister, UDPS stands for Union for Democracy and Social Progress) and others are now saying that only a mini intercongolese dialogue can save the situation. The dialogue should recreate a consensus for the way elections are going to be organized past June 30.

Pambazuka News : It is hoped that when elections do take place, they will provide a fresh start to the DRC. The fact that there will be 33 presidential candidates and nearly 10,000 applications for the parliamentary elections does at first sight appear to be a positive democratic development. But to what extent will the polls be democratic and to what extent is there a danger that elections could result in further disruption related to disputes over the results?

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba : At no time since independence have Congolese agreed on fundamentals of national ideals or interests (and their articulation to world powers and neighbouring countries’interests) without external arbitration. While no sum-up of the 1960s UN Congolese mission has been really done, the country is again under another UN Congolese mission. The ICD Accord (Pambazuka News note : ICD stands for Inter-Congolese Dialogue, which followed the Lusaka Accord in 1999 that officially ended armed conflict) made the CIAT (Pambazuka News : The French acronym for the International Committee to Accompany the Transition) the last resort in the conduct of the Transition.

The Congolese do not really own the very elctoral process itself - not just because the international community finances most of it, but even the fact that the whole conception of what democracy we must have seems to be outside influenced (thus, the tendencies of carving the laws with certain people in mind). By the way, people went to vote, in the referendum, for a Constitution they had not seen. And since there were four different constitutional texts the day before the referendum, those who had seen one did not know which one they were approving.

There is a general will and enthusiasm, among people, to go to elections to settle the legitimacy crisis. But, increasingly, it appears that free and fair elections, the way things are being conducted, are out of the question. Those who feel to gain argue that it does not matter the quality of elections ; with time in the future, things will improve. Right now, what counts is to start. The manipulatory character of Congolese politics based on the conception of winning against rather than with makes it difficult to have agreements over the need to set up a positive political atmosphere, acceptable to all, conducive to an acceptable and thus credible electoral process. Certainly, results are going to be disputed. The institution for settleting the conflits, the Supreme Court of Justice, has already been discredited in many actors’ views. The great number of candidates is mostly due to the fact that politics is seen, and has been functioning, as the only way to have access to some income.

Pambazuka News : The involvement of foreign powers – both regional and international – is well documented in fuelling the conflict in the DRC. How will these interests effect the elections?

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba : The most important thing is that for the first time, there seems to be a consensus in the international community to have elections, even if only symbolically. Their countries’ respective people whose money is used to finance the elections in the DRC may ask for explanation if there is nothing to show. There is a sense, hence the precipitous character of the electoral process, that there are particular puppets some powers would like to see win in the elections ; people who may guarantee their interests to the extent of not needing instability to secure them. Those powers, it is hoped, will discipline their allies that are Congolese neighbours.

Pambazuka News : The tremendous potential of the DRC is often cited. Yet the country faces enormous problems: Its infrastructure has been destroyed, there is still widespread fighting etc etc. Does anyone have a viable recovery plan on the table or will it just be business as usual following the elections?

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba : Some of us are actually raising that same issue. The transitionary government has not even had an awareness of the fact that the country is in a castrophic situation and has thus failed to proclaim it to the world and provoke a general solidarity to focus on trying to get the country out of that situation and actually come up with a plan for doing it. Few candidates seem to be aware of this need, let alone to think of the essential tasks to pursue after the elections.

I did want to stand for the presidential elections to make sure this issue is made part of the electoral campaign discussions. As I opposed paying the so-called caution of $50,000 (such a high price or tax to pay to exercise one’s right to be candidate - This favors of course looters-past, present and puppets), my candidacy was not retained, one of among 40. We (in a group) are still agitating for that position; we are about to release a public statement.

Pambazuka News : What should be the top five priorities of any newly-elected government?

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba : I believe that the general framework should include two essential global tasks: proclaim the fact that the country is in a catastrophic situation and work out a plan to get out of the situation, on the basis of people’s involvement; start to build a State, from below, different from the one, now decomposed, built from a colonial model.

The top priorities should include: radical improvement of fiscal structures (it is easy to spend money, but tough to raise it, especially when the country is like now), address fast the rehabilitation of economic-related infrastructures with an aim to integrate parts of the country; stop all the leaks, especially the looting structures (mines, oil, wood, etc.), rebuild basic state apparatuses, with people involvement (reduce government and administration sizes); a lot of work for people mobilization linked to job creation - where feasible without forcing, people must be displaced from overcrowded cities to the country side where the agriculture policy and local State structures being built may be tested. It is hoped that the solidarity demand may mean a temporary stop on the debt payment.

Pambazuka News : Marie-Madeleine Kalala, DRC Minister for Human Rights, in briefing the UN Human Rights Committee in March 2006, declared that a Truth and Reconciliation Commission had been established, as well as a national human rights monitoring institute. This was in order to identify people responsible for human rights violations. How important are these processes to healing the DRC?

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba : The existence of institutions is often seen here as its only value. Not only are they ill manned, with incompetent people or people who hardly know what reconciliation implies or people who happen to be puppets of forces that are scared of real reconciliation. Nothing very serious has taken place to actually say that there has been attempts at reconciling Congolese. No ceremony, even at the presidential level, even just symbolically has taken place.

To be effective, like a palaver, reconciliation must involve first the leaders themselves who are willing to accept their own misgivings and are willing to pardon others and be tolerant to hear all kind of grievances voiced, etc. Reconciliation cannot be done privately. The whole healing process is still to be started and done. In fact, most Congolese are counting on the performance of the International Criminal Court to get the criminals judged. It is not easy to identify people responsible for human rights violations, when those are in power.

I do know some human rights advocates who have been threatened because of their work of identifying certain human rights violators, one or two had to leave the country. If archives can be safely organized to be used when some of those people are out of power, that may be a good thing to do; but, that does not deal really with the healing part yet.

Pambazuka News: Lastly, the situation of the DRC can be seen as unique, given the complicated nature of the country in the first place, as well as the role of international and regional actors. Yet, the solution seems to be: Have an election and everything will be okay. Has the complicated nature of the country been adequately considered?

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba : It is true the international community pushes the thesis : have an election and everything will be okay. This seems to be the only way of justifying neocolonialism these days. Most of the recommendations are thus not specific, only things done elsewhere taken to be master keys used everywhere, including the so-called post-conflict economic measures.

When you have a leadership of a complicated country that knows close to nothing of the country’s history and the advisors are only interested in self-enrichment, not much can be expected. The present ones are in fact hostile to any Congolese intellectual who may make the difference. Universities are left to rot. The foreign partisan advisers don’t pay attention to the complicated character of the country either, not even the long term interest of the country. The consequence is a country in a catastrophic situation. There has to be a real break, from the leadership perspective, from the past.

There has to emerge really committed intellectuals, patriotic enough, willing to really come up with a vision to grasp fully the problems of the country and clearly specify its short and long term interest and the latter relation to foreign powers and countries’ interests. A real plan is necessary to prioritize the elements of a government programme. We need a think tank devoted to that task of mapping what must be known and done to make the country occupy its real place in Africa and the world. I would enjoy being involved in this work.

* Professor Ernest Wamba dia Wamba is a historian who has taught at a number of universities including Harvard University and the University of Dar-es-Salaam

* Interview conducted by email. Please send comments to