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The
first flight with ballot papers for the elections in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will leave South Africa early on
Saturday morning. South Africa has been playing a pivotal role in
facilitating a peace deal in the mineral rich country, which will
see democratic elections being held there on 30 July-the first in
more than 40 years.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) will fly the ballot
papers there as part of the assistance South Africa is providing to
help the DRC transit to democracy following years of brutal
warfare.
The war broke out in 1998 as an attempt to topple then President
Laurent Kabila. At its height, the war drew in seven foreign
nations and several disgruntled armed forces. It is estimated to
have left 2,5-million dead in the mineral rich but developmentally
impoverished country.
The former Belgian colony, bordered by Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi,
Tanzania and Zambia, has enormous mineral wealth due to its
deposits of gold, silver, diamonds, copper, cobalt, zinc uranium
and tantalum, making the French-speaking nation potentially the
richest nation on the continent.
But it has come to know little peace since its independence in 1960
witnessing among others sporadic uprisings and riots including a
coup d'etat, assassinations of former Prime Minister Patrice
Lumumba in 1961 and that of President Kabila senior in 2001.
However, warring factions in that country signed a peace-accord in
Pretoria in 2003 providing for President Joseph Kabila to remain
head of state for a two-year period and then elect a new
government.
President Kabila came into power following the assassination of his
father Laurent.
The peace process there began with the reforming of the security
system by disarming, demobilising and reintegrating former rebels
into the army and the police force with the assistance of the
international community.
In a move seen as an act of solidarity by the international
community to help the DRC transit into democracy, in March the
Irish and Denmark governments donated about R11-million to enable
the IEC stage successful elections there.
A huge chunk of the funds would be channelled to logistics such as
the recruitment and training of staff, conflict resolution and
information and communication technology infrastructure especially
for voting and results.
As part of logistical preparations for the big day, the IEC started
printing the ballot papers over two months ago and is expected to
deliver the last of the ballot papers by 23 June.
In addition, electoral experts in IT had already been posted to
that country.
IEC Chairperson Brigalia Bam said the assistance would enable the
central African country hold the next round of elections on its
own, having drawn from experience from South Africa.
At least 9 000 candidates would be participating in the elections,
contesting for 500 seats in the National Assembly.
Another 33 would be contesting for the country's presidency.
South Africa anticipated seconding about 128 electoral experts from
1 July to 15 August, considering that the DRC had not held
elections in a long time.
However, seminars had been held with political parties in the DRC
to help them understand the processes of voting, counting and for
the announcement of results. – BuaNews
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