© REUTERS/Baz Ratner
Ceni headquarters in Kinshasa, January 9, 2019.
In the DRC, are we heading towards elections beyond the constitutional deadlines? In any case, this is what Denis Kadima, president of the Independent National Electoral Commission (Céni), says he wants to avoid. After steps with the presidency and the government, he was received, Monday, March 7, by the presidents of the two chambers of Parliament.
With our correspondent in Kinshasa, Pascal Mulegwa
In the National Assembly as in the Senate, Denis Kadima sends the same message. For the president of the CENI, time is running out and a key step must be taken quickly. ” For example, there is a bill. We are going to analyze it at our level and discuss it with the National Assembly. We hope that during this March session, the discussions will take place. We had to advance to the point of having the reforms. Because reforms have an impact on operations. The sooner it’s done, the better ».
In the meantime, it will be necessary to put on the table, for example, the option of a presidential election in 1 or 2 rounds and to decide on the enrollment of voters at the time of the population census. Proposals that may cause the postponement of the elections.
Denis Kadima has already mentioned these constraints on the Ceni’s roadmap. Hundreds of organizations are worried about it, such as Jonas Tshiombela’s New Congolese Civil Society. ” It is up to the Head of State to take the initiative to seek consensus around these constraints with all the stakeholders. We call on the population for more mobilization so that, when the time comes, with citizen pressure, we can obtain the elections within the constitutional deadlines. We cannot accept that what happened in 2018 will happen again in 2023 as if we have not learned the lessons”.
Civil society and the opposition are waiting for this new crucial step to define the rules of the game. An opposition which continues to challenge the leading team of the Ceni and which believes that the Constitutional Court is under the orders of power.
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