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Viewing cable 06KINSHASA1264, DRC ELECTIONS: AN INSIDE LOOK AT KINSHASA'S

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06KINSHASA1264 2006-08-11 07:55 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Kinshasa
VZCZCXRO7703
PP RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHKI #1264/01 2230755
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 110755Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4570
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 03 KINSHASA 001264 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM KPKO CG ELECTIONS
SUBJECT: DRC ELECTIONS:  AN INSIDE LOOK AT KINSHASA'S 
VOTING COMPILATION CENTER 
 
 
1. (U) Summary: Following the enormous logistical challenge 
of organizing the DRC's July 30 presidential and legislative 
elections comes an equally daunting task: the collection, 
compilation and verification of tens of millions of ballots 
from some 50,000 polling stations nationwide. In Kinshasa, 
the local compilation center -- which handles ballots from 
more than 8,500 individual polling sites -- was a scene of 
chaos and confusion in the days immediately following the 
election, with dazed Electoral Commission workers unable to 
process the truckloads of election materials arriving by the 
hour. The initial haphazard storage of ballots, tally sheets 
and other paperwork raised serious concerns among some 
international observer missions about the transparency and 
security of the vote-counting process. Nonetheless, poll 
workers in Kinshasa have since established a greater sense of 
order at the capital's compilation center, and are well on 
their way to meeting the August 20 deadline for announcing 
national provisional results for the presidential contest. 
End summary. 
 
2. (U) PolOff visited Kinshasa's local ballot compilation 
center twice in the week following the July 30 election. 
Members of the International Committee to Accompany the 
Transition (CIAT) also visited the compilation center August 
10. In two rented warehouses that still contain the remains 
of an old printing press, the Independent Electoral 
Commission (CEI) is storing and verifying voting material 
from more than 8,500 polling sites throughout the city. On 
the site itself, there are four compilation centers -- one 
for each of Kinshasa's four voting districts -- with two in 
each building, operating 24 hours a day, involving roughly 
900 personnel. (Note: The Kinshasa center originally closed 
each day around 5pm, but officials extended working hours so 
as to speed up the compilation process. End note.) Throughout 
the rest of the DRC, another 58 local compilation centers are 
collecting material from the remaining 41,000 polling 
stations. 
 
--------------------------- 
INITIAL CHAOS AND CONFUSION 
--------------------------- 
 
3. (U) The first visit on August 1 revealed a serious lack of 
preparation, organization and security at the center.  The 
site itself was well-guarded, with Congolese police posted at 
the main entrance checking credentials for all those wanting 
to enter. (Note: Only officially accredited election 
observers, political party witnesses, journalists and 
election workers have authorization to enter compilation 
centers. End note.) Inside the compound was a fire engine 
(the reliability of which was uncertain), more police guards, 
and an armored personnel carrier with a platoon of MONUC 
peacekeepers standing watch. 
 
4. (U) The rest of the compound, however, was a scene of 
chaos and confusion. Outside one building, envelopes 
containing the records of voting operations and tally sheets 
were strewn across the ground as CEI workers tried to put 
them in piles according to neighborhood or voting center. 
Nearby, stacks of marked and unmarked ballots (presidential 
and legislative) were spilling out of cardboard boxes and 
left unattended in the open air. In a breezeway between two 
out-buildings, election workers had filled the entire 50-yard 
passage more than six feet high with used ballot boxes, 
packages of marked and unmarked ballots, and other 
supplemental election materials. Throughout the site, used 
ballot boxes were sealed and stuffed full of (presumably) 
marked ballots for safeguarding, as poll workers at the 
voting sites themselves apparently had no other means of 
securely transporting ballots to the compilation center. CEI 
workers were also witnessed haphazardly throwing all kinds of 
election material -- mostly used and unused ballots -- into a 
room that was already piled up to the ceiling. On another 
side of the compound, pickup trucks arrived regularly to drop 
off more loads of material from yet more voting sites.  CEI 
workers were busy throughout the compound trying to sort 
through tally sheets, ballots and other documents -- some of 
which were torn or damaged from sitting out in the open -- 
and deliver them to the appropriate destination or storage 
room. At the Kinshasa compilation center, though, "storage" 
meant little more than randomly tossing armloads of election 
material into a room. (Note:  The August 2 fire that 
reportedly destroyed ballots and other material at a Kinshasa 
center, reftel, occurred at a local liaison office in the 
N'djili neighborhood of the city, not at the compilation 
 
KINSHASA 00001264  002 OF 003 
 
 
center.  End note.) 
 
----------------------------- 
WHAT'S ACTUALLY BEING COUNTED 
----------------------------- 
 
5. (U) It should be noted, however, that the ballots 
themselves do not actually have to be recounted at the 
compilation centers. At each of the 50,000 polling sites, 
poll workers were required to fill out two documents in 
quadruplicate at the end of vote counting: a record of the 
"minutes" detailing that site's voting operations, plus a 
tally sheet indicating the number of votes for each 
candidate. The minutes contain notes on the number of ballots 
delivered, those used and unused, as well as how many were 
declared void (for being improperly marked). The minutes also 
record as well any disagreements or challenges political 
party witnesses or observers had with the voting or counting 
process. These two documents are CEI officials at the 
compilation centers use to verify election results. Workers 
at the compilation centers are required only to retabulate 
the figures from the tally sheets to ensure the correct 
calculations were made. If the original poll workers made an 
error in adding up the votes, compilation center officials 
attach a new tally sheet to the original with the correct 
numbers. In such cases, the ballots themselves are not 
recounted. The only case in which the ballots would manually 
be recounted is if the minutes of the vote-counting process 
indicate some discrepancy with the final vote tally. 
 
6. (U) Inside the compilation centers, where the actual 
verification and tabulation process takes place, operations 
were somewhat more orderly. The envelopes containing tally 
sheets were scattered across the floor, as several poll 
workers in each centers walked through the piles to sort them 
by voting district for later counting. Most CEI officials 
were occupied with just trying to manage the large volume of 
material arriving by the hour. Some data entry specialists -- 
whose job is to input the actual vote counts into the central 
computer and send them to CEI headquarters electronically -- 
were either sitting around with nothing to do or absent from 
their posts. While no one person at each compilation center 
appeared to be in overall command, workers were generally 
going about their business with an air of determination and 
purpose. 
 
------------------- 
MARKED IMPROVEMENTS 
------------------- 
 
7. (U) By the time of PolOff's second visit on August 4, the 
Kinshasa compilation centers had improved their operations 
markedly. While several stacks of voting material remained 
outside, everything was under protective cover and generally 
arranged neatly. Storage rooms -- including the 
aforementioned passageway between two buildings -- were, 
however, still filled to the rafters with boxes and boxes of 
material. Gone, though, were the endless piles of ballots and 
boxes that had littered the compound three days earlier. 
Police forces and MONUC peacekeepers were still on guard, as 
was the sole fire truck. In response to the original problems 
at the center, CEI President Abbe Apollinaire Malu Malu added 
more staff to assist in the counting process. International 
election observers said as well they have noticed "huge 
improvements" made by the CEI since the initial week of 
operations. 
 
8. (U) CEI workers at the compilation center were by August 4 
fully engaged in the work at hand. All four centers were full 
of officials sorting tally sheets and other documents, 
verifying and tabulating results, inputting data into the 
computers, and preparing duplicate copies of all materials 
for delivery to the Supreme Court (which will be the final 
arbiter of presidential and legislative election disputes) 
and CEI headquarters. In addition, the chief of each 
compilation center was present and overseeing operations, and 
took time to answer questions from various observers about 
the compilation process. All centers have election observers 
and party candidate representatives watching the operations. 
The centers themselves were generally well-lit and 
air-conditioned, with enough space for all officials to work 
freely and comfortably. The envelopes containing minutes and 
tally sheets were neatly stacked and organized by voting 
center on shelves throughout the room. By the time of the 
CIAT visit August 10, operations were proceeding smoothly in 
 
KINSHASA 00001264  003 OF 003 
 
 
all four compilation centers. The head of one center did 
complain that his internet connection had been sporadic over 
the past few days, which had led to delays in transmitting 
results to the CEI. Electoral Commission officials, though, 
said they had not encountered any other major logistical 
difficulties apart from dealing with the overwhelming influx 
of materials arriving immediately after July 30. 
 
------------------------------------- 
POOR PLANNING AND OVERWHELMING VOLUME 
------------------------------------- 
 
9. (SBU) The initial difficulties at the Kinshasa compilation 
center can be traced to two primary factors. The first is the 
sheer number of ballots, tally sheets and other material that 
were delivered to this one location. As reported previously, 
the legislative ballots alone for districts in Kinshasa were 
two feet by three feet in size, and six pages long. Adding 
these ballots to the presidential ballots from more than 
8,500 polling stations created a literal tsunami of paper 
descending on election workers in Kinshasa. At compilation 
centers in the rest of the country, such problems have not 
arisen because the amount of material to be processed is 
nowhere near as large as in Kinshasa. Secondly, the CEI did a 
poor job communicating to its officials in Kinshasa exactly 
how to deliver voting material to the compilation center. 
Consequently, some polling sites sent their ballots to a 
local liaison offices, while others sent theirs directly to 
the compilation center. Moreover, as Malu Malu has conceded, 
the Electoral Commission did not have enough vehicles to 
collect material from throughout the city, thereby delaying 
delivery or forcing election workers to use other (less 
secure) means of transport. Overall, CEI officials have 
admitted the Commission's plans -- particularly in Kinshasa 
-- for collecting material after the vote were not 
well-developed or executed. 
 
--------------------- 
CONCERNS STILL LINGER 
--------------------- 
 
10. (U) These deficiencies in the vote compilation process -- 
especially on questions regarding the chain of custody -- 
have worried many international observation missions. Carter 
Center and European Union officials in particular have said 
they are satisfied with the way the CEI has responded to 
initial problems with ballot security, storage and counting 
operations, but still expressed concerns about the overall 
integrity of the process. Both missions, though, have kept 
election observers in the DRC and are continuing to monitor 
operations both in Kinshasa and the rest of the DRC. At the 
Kinshasa compilation center, Congolese observers and 
political party witnesses have been present to note any 
potential irregularities. Compilation center officials told 
the CIAT August 10 that between 75-80 percent of the Kinshasa 
ballots had been collected and verified at the four centers. 
They expected to complete the presidential race compilation 
by the end of the weekend, and would then start on the 
National Assembly results. 
 
------------------------------- 
COMMENT: KINSHASA THE EXCEPTION 
------------------------------- 
 
11. (SBU) Comment: The Kinshasa compilation center is more 
the exception than the rule in the DRC. Elsewhere in the 
country, compilation centers have not experienced similar 
scenes of general disorder. Given the complexity and enormity 
of Kinshasa's ballots and polling stations, the collection, 
storage and verification of material was bound to be 
difficult at best. Certainly the initial days of operations 
at the Kinshasa center did not give observers the sense that 
the electoral process at this critical period was well 
managed. CEI officials have brought matters under control and 
are still on target to meet the Commission's timeline of an 
August 20 announcement for provisional presidential results. 
As during the vote itself, CEI officials proved resilient and 
innovative in the face of logistical difficulties, finding 
inventive ways to meet the required demands. While not 
perfect, the Congolese system is working and slowly producing 
results.  In addition, despite the disarray and confusion, 
there still do not appear to be any concerted efforts by 
election workers -- or others -- to manipulate the vote. End 
comment. 
MEECE