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Posted by Sean Sinclair-Day Oct 31, 2006 |
Some were expecting another 'Rumble in the Jungle' when incumbent president Joseph Kabila defended his inherited title against ex-rebel Jean-Pierre Bemba on October 29. But reports out of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) confirm that the election went well and that results could be expected ahead of the November 19 projection. For an event that needed 50,000 polling stations in a country known for its instability and outbursts of violence, it is remarkable that only two noteworthy altercations tainted Sunday's voting. Unfortunately, they also underscore the volatility of Congolese society.
In one instance, a drunken Congolese soldier shot and killed two election workers igniting a riot in which polling stations were torched and as many as 25,000 ballots destroyed. The soldier in question has already been sentenced to death by a military tribunal. In another town, police shot and killed two rioters who destroyed polling stations. In both cases, the voting will have to be redone.
On a more encouraging note, election monitors from South Africa observed that the vote in the DRC was "democratic, peaceful, credible and transparent." These adjectives are rarely attributed to the DRC, a country still suffering from the hangover of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko's 32-year looting binge. Joseph Kabila appears destined to be the man who must spearhead the DRC's detoxification program, mindful that violence, rioting, coups and war are always potential threats.
Since Mobutu was deposed in 1997, the DRC has known little but war, hunger and disease. These grim realities may account for the fact that there are still merely 300 miles of paved roads in a land the size of Western Europe. Rebuilding a nation is something the new president will have to do figuratively; building the country is something he will have to do literally.