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Viewing cable 06KINSHASA1033, DRC ELECTIONS: CAMPAIGN OFFICIALLY BEGINS

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06KINSHASA1033 2006-06-29 13:27 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Kinshasa
VZCZCXRO4788
PP RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR
DE RUEHKI #1033/01 1801327
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 291327Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4242
INFO RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 001033 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM KPKO CG ELECTIONS
SUBJECT: DRC ELECTIONS: CAMPAIGN OFFICIALLY BEGINS 
 
 
1. (U) The official campaign period for the DRC's 
presidential and legislative elections commenced June 29, 
marking the beginning of the final electoral phase before the 
country's July 30 elections. In total, 33 presidential 
candidates are running for office, as well as 9,709 
candidates (from 213 political parties) for 500 seats in the 
National Assembly, representing 169 electoral districts. The 
campaign period is scheduled to last 30 days, ending at 
midnight July 28. According to the Independent Electoral 
Commission (CEI), polls are planned to open at 6am July 30 
and are scheduled to close at 5pm, unless voters are still 
waiting at that hour to vote. CEI officials have said voting 
stations must remain open until the last voter in line at 5pm 
has cast a ballot. Immediately following their closure, 
voting sites will begin counting ballots, which subsequently 
will be sent to regional centers for compilation and 
verification. The CEI has not said when the final election 
results will be known. 
 
2. (U) While the first round of presidential and legislative 
voting will take place July 30, the CEI has not yet set a 
date for the second round of elections. (Note: The CEI is 
expected to announce the next phase of the electoral calendar 
the week of July 3. End note.) The second round of voting 
will consist of provincial legislature elections, plus a 
runoff in the presidential contest if no candidate receives a 
majority of votes in the first round. The top two 
vote-getters from the first round would face off in the 
second. The 25 provincial legislatures (plus Kinshasa), once 
seated, will then elect the country's 108 senators (four per 
province and eight for Kinshasa) and 26 territorial governors. 
 
3. (U) As the elections approach, significant logistical 
hurdles remain for the CEI and MONUC in preparing for the 
DRC's first free elections in more than 40 years. The size of 
the country and its electorate are enormous. The DRC's 
territorial size is roughly 1.45 million square miles -- or 
approximately the size of Western Europe -- and lacks a roads 
system, making the transport of goods and election materials 
especially difficult. Equally daunting are the number of 
potential voters from the country's 11 provinces. The CEI 
registered 25.6 million voters in 2005 out of an anticipated 
28 million eligible citizens. Comparatively, the DRC has five 
million more registered voters than South Africa, and more 
than seven times as many as Haiti. In the capital of Kinshasa 
and its surroundings alone, there are approximately three 
million registered voters, roughly half of Sierra Leone's 
entire population. In the DRC's northeastern Ituri District 
(roughly two-thirds the size of Liberia), 1.4 million 
Congolese registered to vote, compared to Liberia's 1.35 
million registered voters. 
 
4. (U) Putting into place the DRC's electoral system has 
required a massive logistical effort. The budget for the CEI 
and the UNDP (which is helping organize elections) has 
reached approximately USD 470 million. (Note: This is 
separate from MONUC's logistical contribution to elections, 
which currently is around USD 100 million per year. End 
note.) To assist with this organization, the CEI has 
recruited some 300,000 poll workers to operate voting 
stations and other regional electoral offices. The government 
of South Africa is printing (at a cost of some USD 25 
million) 170 different types of ballots for the elections -- 
one for the presidential vote and one for each of the 169 
electoral districts -- which will weigh nearly 1,800 tons. 
According to the CEI, it will take 75 round-trip flights from 
South Africa to 14 distribution points in the DRC to deliver 
some 50 million ballots. In addition, 2,500 tons of material 
for election kits (comprised of forms, ballot boxes, 
collapsible voting booths, and lanterns, among other 
materiel) have been delivered. 
 
5. (U) Following the initial delivery of ballots from South 
Africa, material is being dispatched to 166 regional centers 
of the Electoral Commission, via MONUC air transport. From 
these liaison offices, voting kits and ballots will be 
distributed to nearly 11,000 voting centers, and then finally 
to a planned 50,000 actual voting stations. The CEI, which 
has the responsibility of delivering material from the 
liaison offices to the voting sites, has reported that 
approximately 24,000 people nationwide will be involved in 
the distribution of this material. This distribution phase is 
scheduled to begin July 14. Because of the lack of reliable 
roads, and insufficient transport means, election material 
will be delivered in a variety of ways: canoe, bicycle, 
motorbike and even by foot. It is worth noting that each kit 
 
KINSHASA 00001033  002 OF 002 
 
 
(of which there are some 50,000) weighs about 15 pounds. 
 
6. (U) According to CEI officials, nearly all election kits 
have reached the CEI's 166 liaison offices. CEI officials 
also report that presidential and legislative ballots for the 
majority of electoral districts have been delivered to the 
initial 14 distribution sites. The remaining ballots yet to 
be delivered are from three of Kinshasa's four electoral 
districts; CEI officials said these ballots needed to be 
reprinted because they contained errors. 
 
7. (U) Election security will be provided by the Congolese 
National Police (PNC) and MONUC peacekeepers, in addition to 
troops being provided by the European Union. Approximately 
50,000 Congolese police will be used as the first line of 
defense on election day to provide security at the country's 
polling sites. MONUC currently has nearly 17,500 peacekeepers 
deployed in the DRC -- of which some 14,000 are located in 
the eastern part of the country -- to provide additional 
security, particularly in locations where the PNC does not 
have sufficient forces. (Note: MONUC has fewer peacekeepers 
than the UN's mission in Liberia did at its peak in 2005, for 
a country more than 20 times the size of Liberia. End note.) 
Lastly, the European Union has begun sending 800 troops to 
Kinshasa to assist MONUC in elections-related security 
missions, while an additional 1,200 troops will be positioned 
in Gabon. 
 
8. (SBU) Comment: As SRSG William Swing has said, the DRC's 
elections are the largest undertaking of its kind ever 
supported by the UN. Given the size of the DRC and its lack 
of infrastructure, the logistical aspects of the elections 
are a nightmare, and problems will invariably arise. Ballots 
and election kits will arrive late, and in some cases, not at 
all. Some voting centers will not open on time, and some 
election workers will likely not show up on election day. 
Because of the complicated nature and size of the ballots 
(particularly for legislative elections), there will 
inevitable be errors in tabulating votes, and many voters 
will likely have difficulty understanding how to vote in the 
first place. The country's December constitutional referendum 
demonstrated, though, that the CEI can organize elections on 
a grand scale. End comment. 
MEECE