If all goes well, will be this year’s election the first in the country’s history that generates a democratic alternation of power.
it will not be a smooth process. the the Election has already been postponed for two years and was supposed to be finally held on 23 december, but the electoral body Ceni was forced to postpone the process for another week to gain time. During the last few days, conditions hardly improved.
” I just spoke with the representatives of the Ceni, and they said 40 per cent of the polling stations had not received any forms to report their earnings, says a united nations employee to DN on a late Friday afternoon local time.
Ceni has also ruled that voters in the cities of Beni and Butembo in the east will be able to vote until march – two months after election results announced – due to the conflicts in the area, and a ebolautbrott which is the worst in the country’s history.
voters are deprived of their right to vote in the presidential election sparked riots in Beni on Thursday, and a treatment clinic for ebolapatienter stormed by angry demonstrators. Of the 24 patients who fled clinic in desperation, 17 had negative test results, the hearts of DN, but seven of the missing can carry the deadly infection.
If all goes well, a successor to incumbent president Joseph Kabila is to be sworn in on 18 January, almost to the day 18 years after his father Laurent Kabila was assassinated by his own bodyguards in Marmorpalatset, the former presidential palace in Kinshasa.
then became the world’s youngest head of state and it was a reluctant monarch, shy in the position and unprepared for the task, who took over the throne from his father. Today he has a larger waist and streaked with gray beard, which reflects the authority that comes with the long maktinnehavet.
Joseph Kabila Photo: Frank Franklin II/AP
Kabila and his family have earned billions in the business in the country, which is one of the richest in the world in terms of natural resources that exist within its borders. Congo accounts for around 60 per cent of the world production of cobalt and has a wealth of copper, diamonds and gold, at the side of the rare minerals like coltan as well as an extensive production of timber.
avoid at all keep a choice but now he seems to be set to ”do a Putin”, to release a deputy, who may control the 84 million inhabitants in anticipation of a future comeback.
the Man designated to carry the ruling party, PPRD’s and Kabila’s banner in the election, Emmanuel is Shadary, which is set against the two opposition candidates Martin Fayulu, and Felix Tshisekedi.
Felix Tshisekedi, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary and Martin Fayulu. Photo: AFP
Tshisekedi has in common with Kabila inherited his position from his father, Étienne Tshisekedi who, after a political career that spanned half a century died in the last year. The father managed to survive in the congolese politics by to switch between to at times be a pure opposition, and, at times, be a government’s useful idiot. Critical voices mean that the son is now in a similar way the Kabila case to stand in the election and thus split the opposition. If he has not been the lawful would be the choice has already been made to the Fayulus favor.
Fayulu is a businessman who for two decades worked in various parts of Africa for the oil giant Exxon Mobil before he went into politics.
Now, says a recent opinion poll, which was released on Friday, that the opposition prime candidate Martin Fayulu still going to take home the victory.
the Institute Berci has together with a research group at New York University, interviewed 2.000 congolese. An appraisal with the world of Apps figures give Fayulu 47 percent of the vote against Tshisekedis 24 per cent and 19 per cent for the Shadary.
this year’s just a game and it is the candidate who collects most votes wins, regardless of whether this person got the majority.
– There are different six to seven million votes between Shadary and Fayulu, which is the clear favorite, says the research team leader Jason Stearns to DN.
But few analysts think it will be a pure competition, a view shared by most of the congolese who at this point is refined. After the polls closed, it will be a whole week before the a preliminary results released by the electoral body and the slightest hint of impropriety can ignite the large powder keg that is the Congo, Africa’s second largest country. Already, several million people lost their lives in the long chain of conflicts, which started after dictator Mobutu Sese Sekos exodus in the late 1990s.
the Choice has been seen as a milestone on the road to a more peaceful normality. But everything hangs on a short sentence: if all goes well.
