And the elections saga continues...

Election posters in Kinshasa, there were close
 to 19,000 parliamentary cadidates for 500 seats

It is now just over three weeks since DR Congo’s Presidential election, but my god it feels a lot longer than that. It is just dragging on and on and on. Every week, people (from both sides of the emphatic political divide) say “there will be a big demonstration this week, a lot of people will die, but we are fighting for our freedom”…and then nothing happens.

We have known for a while now, since the day of the elections, that mass “irregularities” took place. It is possible that Kabila won the elections, albeit by a very narrow margin. It is also very possible that Tshisekedi won. We just don’t know, and the Congolese people deserve better than that.

Congo is an immensely wealthy country in terms of natural resources: diamonds, copper, gold and the metal you find in mobile phones. But they have lacked a government to turn this wealth into something tangible for the people, who currently languish at the bottom of the UN’s human development index. If demonstrations do occur, they can’t last long because people need to buy food for their families almost daily, as they can’t afford refrigeration or to stockpile for emergencies.  Rather than providing their people with, say free primary education, Congo’s leaders have tended to buy villas in Spain. Who knows how much better Tshisikedi would be, but Kabila has been in power for 11 years, and he doesn’t seem to have done much.

Kabila is an odd character. Rumors swirl around Kinshasa that his real mother is Rwandan, and that he isn’t Congolese at all (sound familiar?). Born in a rebel training camp in the East, Kabila speaks Swahili and English, and only began to learn French when he took up the presidency on his father’s assassination. He can’t speak Lingala, the dominant language in Kinshasa. He also fears public gatherings, so hasn’t been able to build up the cult of personality like Mobutu.  People in Kinshasa see him as an outsider, and they don’t trust him. Of course, Kinshasa is not Congo.

But getting back to the elections. Whether or not Tshisikedi won the elections, what is clear is that enough” irregularities” (such as the loss of opposition ballots, the filling in of multiple ballots by Kabila supporters etc etc) took place to throw the result in doubt. There has been some international media attention, and this year, in the context of the Arab Spring, may be the time for people to take to the streets and get enough international eyes on them to make a change. But the opposition waited. Even though we knew the results would be rigged, the opposition waited for the official results to be announced, assumingly due to international pressure. Similarly, the leader of one opposition party (Vital Kamerhe) submitted a legal challenge to the results via the Supreme Court, even though it is stacked with pro-Kabila judges. Again, it is likely the International Community was behind this too.

When all the other candidates had to take their posters
 down the day before the election, Kabila continued to
stare down on the city

Kabila was officially sworn in as President yesterday, and only head of state to attend the ceremony was Robert Mugabe.  Tshisikedi is in a bind: he can’t prove that he won the elections, even though several international observers have cited problems with the election. But it is difficult to call supporters into the streets, or even leave his own home, as opposition neighbourhoods are surrounded by tanks. Literally, Tshisikedi’s home compound is under the gun. Unlike the 2006 presidential challenger, Bemba, Tshi doesn’t have a rebel army behind him (thank god) to declare war in the streets. SMS systems are still deactivated, and all opposition broadcasters have been pulled off air. Young, pro-opposition men are also reported to be disappearing: bundled into police cars, they haven’t been heard from since. The government has made it clear it is ready to use force, and it has. Finally, the ICC has made it clear that they are watching the Congo elections, ready to pounce on political leaders inciting violence. Bemba is in the dock now, and although he is charged with war crimes committed in CAR, it sets an important example.  After several inflammatory statements before the elections, Tshi has reigned in, carefully wording each statement to call for non-violent demonstrations.

But will these demonstrations ever come? I hope so. Even if the man in power doesn’t change, people need a chance to be heard, and it is their right. If there is no release of pent up anger now, it could erupt later. And the stage is set: early 2012 will see Congo’s second democratic local elections, tensions left unresolved now could spill over then.

Currently, the international community seems content to leave Congo to fester. As long as there is only limited violence on the street (over 20 people have been killed so far in election violence), we seem content to sit back, the nightly news is glued to elections in Egypt, and we just don’t seem to have the energy for Congo. Congo has seen two wars in the last twenty years, wars that destabilized the entire region. But real, transparent democracy is not only important in Congo for the regional ramifications any enduring unrest could have, it is important because the Congolese people deserve to know who they chose to lead the country, whichever political party they come from.

Tshisikedi has called for a new demonstration this Friday to inaugurate himself President of the DRC, assuming he can leave his house. Most of me wants an outpouring of people in the streets, a crowd too large to be easily brushed aside with threats of government violence. Not because they think Tshisikedi should be president, but because they want free, transparent and fair elections, and because in a democracy, they have the right to protest. Most of me wants this, and the sooner the better while DRC is still somewhat on the global news desk radar. However, after so many delays already, a part of me asks, does the demonstration really have to be Friday? That’s the day I am supposed to be flying out on holiday, and surely one more delay won’t make a difference?