On to the elections! – Independent Congo

2023-06-02 17:04:40

Gaston Mutamba Permission

Smart as a Jesuit, the president of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) is in the process of succeeding in his bet to organize, on December 20, direct elections for the President of the Republic, national deputies, provincial deputies and councilors communal. As my friend who has gone mad says, “the caravan barks and the dog passes”. Since the elections started again, the electoral calendar has never been respected. There have always been delays and postponements. Saperlipopette!

The draft law on the distribution of seats is already under discussion in parliament. The elections could therefore be held on December 20 as planned. The end of this year will be good. Candidates will distribute money. The people will eat and drink. The pans will sing. Loincloths will be offered! Some of the candidates will promise as usual to transform the Congo into a land of plenty. For those who don’t know, it’s an imaginary country where everything is abundant and where money is easily earned. It is a world of perpetual parties. We indulge in earthly pleasures, play and idleness. Unfortunately, election promises are valid for those who receive them.

According to my friend who knows what is happening in all the nooks and crannies of dilapidated Kinshasa, this is the moment that certain political parties choose to fire red balls at the electoral process. It is considered to be unreliable. It would only be the planning of the fraud, especially since all the institutions relating to the organization of the results (CENI and Constitutional Court) are politicized and managed by cronies and rogues. There are those who say that the electoral list is only provisional. Others claim that the electoral register is corrupt. There are also those who demand the suspension of the examination of the draft law on the distribution of seats in order to first build a consensus around not only the electoral register but also the whole process. The CLC (Lay Coordination Committee) even declared urbi et orbi that it was going to take advantage of the arrival of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), to give him the file already constituted. “risks of committing crimes against humanity” against political opponents. Hell and damnation!

Kharim Khan, the prosecutor of the highly politicized ICC stayed well, from May 28 to 1^is June, in our country coveted by all neighboring countries and China. A cooperation agreement in the fight against war crimes was even signed on 1^is June, between the Minister of Justice and Karim Khan in the presence of Fatshi. After the famous muffled march of the opposition on May 20, it was decided that every Thursday that God made on earth, there will be a sit-in in front of the CENI to protest against the electoral process. There was indeed a sit-in on Thursday, May 25, which was not followed. But this Thursday, June 2, nothing. Nihil novi sub sole! No militants in sight in front of the CENI headquarters. Stupor and tremors! Could it be that the opposition and those in power sometimes play hide and seek, sometimes cat and mouse?

An opposition rally is now scheduled for June 17 at Place Sainte Thérèse. A new march is expected on June 21. According to my friend who knows everything, accepting today to review the electoral list as well as the composition of the CENI and the Constitutional Court will not make it possible to organize the elections in due time. Go beyond the constitutional deadline, the power will no longer be legitimate. The country risks becoming ungovernable. Better, then, to have elections, even bad ones, than no elections at all.

We say that when there are no enemies inside, the enemies outside cannot reach you.

–
GML