POLITICS: High Turnout in Congo Referendum

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Anjan Sundaram

KINSHASA, Dec 20 2005 (IPS) - Congolese voted on their new constitution for the first time in decades, but many complained that they knew little about the proposed charter meant to pave the way for elections next year.

Polling began at early Sunday morning in the vast Central African nation with Congolese hammering the doors of polling stations, in a rush to vote on a constitution many hope will bring lasting peace after years of war and decades of corrupt dictatorship.

On the eve of the referendum, three voting booths were burnt by opponents of the new constitution, destroying electoral kits, ballots and two schools meant for Kinshasa’s poor children. And on Friday, police shot tear gas and live bullets into a crowd of nearly 500 people protesting the proposed charter, leaving at least three people injured.

Policemen and soldiers had lined Kinshasa’s streets since Saturday night to secure the vote. Polling continued Monday in about one-quarter of the polling stations to accommodate voters, according to the country’s Electoral Commission.

More than 25 million people had registered to vote in Congo and turnout appears to be high outside the capital Kinshasa, with some areas receiving as many as 80 percent of eligible voters.

The Electoral Commission on Monday was not able to specify official turnout figures.

Many Congolese complain that they know little about the constitution they are voting on, a frustration derived from a poorly conducted nationwide voter education programme that failed to reach even educated residents of the capital.

Some areas of Congo reportedly received copies of the constitution only one day before the vote, and in many isolated villages people were still unaware of the meaning of “constitution” or “referendum”, days before the plebiscite.

“If I don’t understand the constitution, how can I approve it?” asked Lucienne Nakwiya, 25, selling pre-paid telephone cards as cars honked around her in Kinshasa’s jam-packed city-centre. “Someone should have explained it already. Now it is too late.”

Electoral officials said that thinly spread staff had encountered enormous logistical problems in distributing posters and slide shows meant to teach Congo’s people about the document they are voting on. Up to half the country’s population is estimated to be illiterate, according to UN officials.

Still western analysts and many Congolese are hopeful that the vote will usher in a new era of peace, ending decades of misrule in the mineral-rich but poverty-ridden nation.

“Today is a new beginning for Congo,” said David Makaya, 21, an art student, holding up his thumb, stained blue, to prove he cast his ballot. “I will vote for the constitution, so we can rebuild our poor country. This is a historic day. The people have the power now.”

The constitution will increase the number of provinces in Congo from 11 to 25, each province having significant budgetary authority over issues such as education, health and public finances.

Many Congolese fear that this division will give incentive to mineral-rich provinces in the east to break away from Congo, though western diplomats and aid officials insist that the newly crafted provinces, drawn along ethnic lines, will improve governance since ethnicity often decides political allegiances in Congo.

Congo’s Catholic Church urged its devotees to vote ‘no’ for a constitution that it believes will “sell the country to foreigners”, highlighting the deep distrust that the people of Congo have for politicians and international aid. Over half of Congolese are believed to be catholic.

“The international community only helps us when they want to,” said Charles Minoki, a 45-year-old government functionary. “Now they are asking us to sell them our soil.”

The leading opposition party in Congo, led by dissident leader Etienne Tshisekedi, has boycotted the constitutional referendum, dismissing it “as merely a formality and a ploy for the politicians to multiply their riches,” said Jean-Baptise Bomenza, spokesman for the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS).

In 2002 Congo emerged from a five-year war that left nearly four million people dead, mostly from hunger and disease, according to the International Rescue Committee. The war ended with peace deals and promises of elections from the warring factions

Congolese are voting for the first time since President Mobutu Sese Seko stood as the sole candidate in presidential elections in 1970 and all Congolese were obliged to vote for him.

On Sunday, Congolese shook-off memories of those elections, relishing the freedom with which they could vote.

“These are free elections, we can choose for the first time,” said Martha Ngwanta, a 50-year-old mother of five who had waited since 5 a.m. for the polling stations to open Sunday. “Now our country will move forward at last.”

Many Congolese in the capital were staying at home, however; still distrustful of politicians that they say cannot be trusted because they were not elected by the people. Congo’s politicians belong mostly to the rival factions that fought during the war and later negotiated leading positions in government.

“I am staying at home, there is no use in voting,” said Lucien Ngongi, 42, an unemployed resident of Kinshasa. “We have seen cheating before when Mobutu was here, now they are cheating again. It is nothing new.”

Congo’s first parliamentary and presidential elections in decades are due before June next year, but few believe that the deadline will be respected if Congolese reject the constitution over the two-day vote.

The 16,700-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo is the largest in the world, run at a cost of over one billion dollars a year – aid to help Congo’s slow transition from war.

Adding its voice to the campaign, the international community this week encouraged Congolese to vote ‘yes’ for a constitution that it says will bring peace and improve peoples’ lives.

The spectre of a ‘no’ vote is daunting.

If the majority of Congolese reject the constitution, President Joseph Kabila and his transitional parliament will have to scramble to redraw a constitution, organise a new referendum, and schedule elections, all before June next year, when the transitional government’s mandate officially ends and power must be handed over to a democratically elected government.

Analysts fear violence might break out in Congo if elections do not happen on time.

The international community says voting for the constitution was the only way to ensure lasting peace for the country, large tracts of which are still held by rebels and militiamen, remnant groups from Congo’s war.

Results from the constitutional referendum are expected this week, with the counting of ballots having begun across the country, according to the Electoral Commission.