Kinshasa, DRC – This Wednesday, hundreds of thousands of Congolese residents vote in one of the anticipated elections of 2023. The high-stakes vote might characterize the second peaceable civilian-to-civilian transition within the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s historical past since independence from Belgium in June 1960.
There have been mounting considerations about transparency, particularly after the European Union observer mission pulled out and tons of of 1000’s of individuals in areas within the risky east are unable to vote due to spiralling insecurity from armed teams.
Al Jazeera spoke to Denis Kadima, president of the Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee (CENI) on its readiness for the election, within the capital, Kinshasa.
Excerpts from the interview:
Al Jazeera: How ready are you for the elections on Wednesday?
Denis Kadima: The method goes effectively. Now we have confronted quite a lot of challenges. The primary got here as a result of we have been appointed very late – 28 months of delay in appointing our group made it very exhausting for us. However we now have been capable of do all the pieces that’s required to run an election, beginning with voter registration as much as the place we at the moment are.
And we now have managed to do it in a brief interval as a result of our election calendar may be very restrictive, and we couldn’t waste a single day. In any other case, the method will likely be at risk. Now we have made big progress. Now we have deployed in a lot of the nation.
After all, there are at all times areas which might be exhausting to entry. In a number of the provinces, you will have swamps, mountains, rivers, no good roads or bridges, and so forth. In order that’s why, at some stage, I requested the federal government to present us helicopters so we will transfer sooner.
And these have solely began coming now, which is a bit late, however all the pieces that comes our means, we take it. Broadly talking, I can say that regardless of these main challenges, the method is on observe. However this can be a cyclical challenge. 5 years in the past, throughout that election, we have been speaking about the identical points.
Al Jazeera: What do you assume must be finished going ahead to ensure that CENI is ready successfully to deal with an election like this?
Kadima: To start with, the appointment of the fee is a really prolonged and complex course of that may paralyse the nation. So we have to have a less complicated means of doing it.
Apart from that, we will’t be holding elections throughout the wet season. So they need to push it towards July, when it’s dry season.
Aside from that, in the long run, we will need to have higher infrastructure as a result of all the pieces is completed by aircraft; as a result of the nation is massive and the roads should not good. Along with that, funding has been coming slowly and this has resulted in us being unable to ship the products by sea.
We do nearly all the pieces by air and that comes with an enormous value. We have to draw classes from one course of to the opposite and discover the time to appropriate by studying from what’s occurred earlier than.
However we don’t at all times have all the pieces that we wish. This 12 months, the federal government had fairly some treasury issues. In order that’s why it occurred that means.
Al Jazeera: So with the sources that you’ve got, do you assume which you could pull off a reputable election?
Kadima: Should you give me $100, I’ll run a great election, however for those who solely give me $50, I’ll nonetheless run an election. We attempt to do as a lot as we will to carry high quality elections. One in every of our targets is to enhance from one cycle to the subsequent. We will’t show the weaknesses of the previous. After all, if we now have cash earlier, we will do higher.
If it comes late, the standard could endure. However finally, we’re a creating nation. We nonetheless have to maintain our elections which prices an excessive amount of. A few of the issues, if they’re finished on time, will value much less.
Al Jazeera: Some Congolese have complained in regards to the electoral course of to this point.
Kadima: I feel they’re being unfair. There are political teams on this nation that aren’t prepared for elections as a result of they by no means consider that we’ll pull it off in such a brief interval. Their technique all alongside has been to discredit the method; it doesn’t matter what we do, they are going to by no means acknowledge what we’ve finished. There are even civil society teams, whose leaders, lots of whom have been candidates for this place I’m in and so they are typically subjective.
The Catholic Church has its personal candidates. The Protestant Church had its personal candidates. However I used to be the fortunate one, and possibly they simply wish to show some extent to point out that they have been proper once they didn’t need me. But it surely was only a political recreation through which I had the higher hand. However I consider that one of the simplest ways to evaluate us is to check the place we’re coming from: 2011, 2018 and 2023.
All through this course of, you will notice quite a lot of openness. Now we have been very inclusive. People who find themselves in exile, unable to submit their candidacy papers, as we speak they’re candidates.
Now we have … gone from 35,000 candidates in 2018 to 100,000 candidates this 12 months. That’s how open it’s. We really helpful to parliament to make long-term statement of elections a part of the authorized framework as a result of we consider observers have a job to play within the transparency of the method.
We have been those who informed individuals that there have been 3.3 million individuals who shouldn’t have been on the voters’ record as a result of they’ve registered greater than as soon as, some are underage, and many others. For the outcomes, we’re going to publish them, polling station by polling station. We’ve tried very exhausting and you may see that the criticism that we get tends to not be at all times real.
In an electoral course of, if you wish to see if the fee is working pretty or not, it is advisable see if the issues occurring throughout the course of are affecting just some teams and never others. Should you take a look at each downside we’ve had, it has affected the entire nation equally and once we remedy it, we additionally remedy it equally. And I feel many are appreciative, aside from these politicians who’ve determined that they want this course of to be blocked to allow them to have some form of dialogue that may culminate within the formation of a authorities of nationwide unity. I don’t assume this nation must undergo that form of uncertainty.
Al Jazeera: Some politicians requested the Constitutional Courtroom for postponement of the elections and that has been denied. Is that one thing you’d think about if, in these few days, all the pieces will not be in place?
Kadima: We don’t need postponement just because on this nation we should construct a routine of holding elections periodically but additionally on time. There’ll at all times be issues to deal with even when they provide us six extra months as a result of it might be an issue of funding or safety. There’ll at all times be some issues, however we should transfer ahead.
I’m not saying that we should neglect elements of the method simply to fulfill the deadline. Now we have finished the utmost with the sources that we acquired throughout the timeframe that we had, which was quick. [But] the nation has extra to realize by holding to the date than if we needed to postpone.
Lots of those that are saying postpone, if it occurs, they’ll be the primary to face up and say, oh, you shouldn’t have postponed after which they are going to create extra issues. There’ll at all times be some issues, however we’ll deal with them as they unfold.
Al Jazeera: Within the east, 6.5 million persons are displaced and plenty of have been unable to register or return house to vote. What do you say to this?
Kadima: The legislation, the way in which it’s designed, you will have broadly two sorts of displaced individuals. The primary group is made up of these individuals who go to their family members. These ones we register as in the event that they have been residents of these locations. However those that are in IDP camps are registered and allotted to the world they got here from.
Consequently, as a result of they’re presupposed to be in these camps quickly, they’re presupposed to vote at their houses. However sadly, the scenario turned even worse and so they discovered themselves operating once more and it’s undecided that they’ve gone again to these camps. They could have gone to another locations. It has simply made it very difficult for us to hint them again. However the backside line is once we get well peace, they might have missed the presidential election, however they are going to be capable of take part within the [elections to] Nationwide Meeting, provincial assemblies, and native councils as effectively.
That’s the value to pay, however as a rustic, we’re the sufferer. We will’t be blamed for what occurred to our countrymen and girls.
Al Jazeera: How do you keep truthful to everybody concerned as CENI president?
Kadima: Everybody will at all times blame you for one thing. It’s quite a lot of strain and duty. With that variety of individuals, 100,000 candidates, solely a pair thousand individuals will likely be elected.
All these others will hate us as a result of they received’t make it. Nobody ever accepts defeat. So these are the realities. But it surely’s a part of the tradition that we have to construct alongside the way in which. We have to make elections a routine the place individuals perceive that I’ll lose now, [but] in 5 years, if I be taught from my mistake, I’ll win. And the extra we do it, the extra individuals will begin internalising such democratic [principles].
The interview has been barely edited for brevity.