US embassy cable - 05KINSHASA1658

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 001658 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/03/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, KDEM, KPKO, CG 
SUBJECT: ELECTION UPDATE 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Roger Meece.  Reasons 1.4 (b/d). 
 
1. (U) The Election Steering Committee (Comite de Pilotage) 
met October 3 to review the status of election preparations 
and the general electoral calendar.  Committee membership 
includes Chief of Mission representation from donors, UN 
agency heads, technical support staff, and senior GDRC 
officials.  The meeting was chaired by the UN Acting SRSG 
Ross Mountain. The Ambassador attended for the U.S. Mission; 
GDRC representatives included the Minister of Defense, Vice 
Ministers of Interior and Budget, and the President of the 
Independent Electoral Commission (CEI).  EU Special Envoy 
Aldo Ajello also attended the session. 
 
Voter Registration 
------------------ 
 
2. (U) The CEI president provided an updated voter 
registration chart showing that slightly over 14.7 million 
have registered through October 2.  Particular improvement 
was reported from the previous summary report in Eastern and 
Western Kasai provinces, and in North Kivu.  Of the planned 
total of 9,090 registration centers, 1,813 are not yet open, 
mostly in Equateur and Bandundu provinces where registration 
just got underway September 25.  Hundreds of other 
registration centers are still operating in nine provinces. 
A handout was distributed detailing remaining needs to deploy 
people and materials to open the remaining centers, including 
helicopter support not yet scheduled, vehicles, diesel fuel, 
gas, bicycles, and motorcycles.  The UN reported some 
mechanical/technical difficulties with helicopters currently 
being utilized, and made an appeal for any additional air 
support that could be provided.  The UN and CEI expressed 
particular thanks to Belgium for arranging for extraordinary 
assistance provided last week by a Belgian Air Force C-130 
sent to supplement existing efforts to deploy registration 
materials and personnel. 
 
3. (SBU) Looking ahead, the CEI presented a schedule that 
calls for the opening of the last registration centers no 
later than October 23.  CEI President Malu Malu explained 
that the CEI is now conducting a center-by-center review 
which will provide further details regarding specific areas. 
In addition, mobile registration centers continue to operate 
to address specific requirements, as will be the case through 
the remainder of the registration exercise.  Under the 
current timeline the CEI is planning to close the last of the 
registration centers, in essence closing voter registration, 
by November 13. 
 
Financing 
--------- 
 
4. (SBU) UNDP presented an updated election financing chart 
for both the CEI election budget, currently estimated at 
roughly USD 270 million, and the related election "security" 
budget, set at roughly USD 48.6 million.   The latter sum is 
fully covered by pledges from European government (the 
European Union plus individual country pledges) totaling USD 
57.8 million to-date. 
 
5. (SBU) UNDP reported pledges totaling USD 276.6 million 
have now been registered, in theory fully covering the CEI 
budget.  The total, however, includes a new pledge of USD 20 
million from the GDRC, in addition to the USD 20 million 
already promised.  (Note: The original USD 20 million GDRC 
pledge includes USD 7.2 million from French designated 
budgetary support funds.  End Note.)  The Ambassador asked 
the GDRC Budget Vice Minister to confirm the additional 
pledge.  He affirmed that the government intends to earmark 
an additional USD 20 million from the CY 2006 budget.  In 
reviewing the figures, including promised GDRC monies, the 
UNDP did emphasize that while the pledge total looks 
promising, there are remaining serious "cash flow" concerns. 
 
Election Calendar 
----------------- 
 
6. (C) Based on the current voter registration schedule, the 
CEI presented a revised time line leading to a required 
Constitutional referendum.  Key dates include an October 29 
closing date to arrange for purchase of goods and printing 
contracts, assembly of "voting center" kits for polling 
stations between October 28 and November 14 (excluding voter 
registration lists).  Distribution of kits to train election 
personnel is to be completed to 64 "liaison offices" by 
November 20, and subsequent distribution to roughly 200 
"territorial centers" by December 3.  A full deployment 
schedule and logistics plan for deployment of voting kits to 
the roughly 40,000 planned polling stations was also 
outlined, using MONUC and commercial fixed wing aircraft, 
MONUC and commercial helicopters, and ground vehicles and 
boats, all to be completed by December 16. 
 
7. (C) The CEI plans to complete printing of voter 
registration lists for Katanga, Eastern Kasai, and Western 
Kasai provinces by November 13, for Kinshasa, Bas Congo, 
Orientale, North and South Kivu provinces by November 21 - 
23, and for Bandundu and Equateur provinces (the last two 
provinces undergoing registration) by December 9. 
Registration lists are to be distributed via the same network 
as utilized for the voting kits from November 20 - December 
16.  Under this scenario, the referendum date itself would be 
December 18, representing a roughly three-week delay from the 
originally announced November 27 target. 
8. (C) The CEI revised calendar has been the subject of 
discussion in recent weeks among CEI officials, foreign 
experts and donors, political leaders, and in the Council of 
Ministers.  In the October 3 meeting, several individuals 
expressed dismay over the prospect of the referendum being 
delayed beyond the originally-announced November 27 date. 
None, however, were able to offer suggestions as to how the 
work plan presented by the CEI could be shortened to arrive 
at an earlier date.  By the end of the discussion, several 
speakers, including the Ambassador, emphasized the importance 
of adhering to the new date at the risk of undermining the 
credibility of the general electoral process. 
 
Election Law 
------------ 
 
9. (C) There was also a general agreement on the need to 
finalize and move forward the draft general election law now 
pending in the GDRC executive.  Defense Minister Onusumba 
reported that the GDRC Political Committee is scheduled to 
meet October 4 to review the draft law.  He expressed hope 
that agreement could be reached quickly, and anticipated that 
subsequent final approval by the Council of Ministers would 
be forthcoming soon after.  The CEI President noted the need 
for the Commission to know provisions of the new law to 
enable other preparatory work for the general elections to 
move forward on a timely basis.  There was consensus within 
the Committee to emphasize to all members of the GDRC the 
importance of producing a final draft text quickly, and to 
members of the Parliament on the need to speedily reach 
agreement regarding essential provisions of the law as well. 
(Note: The general election law cannot be formally adopted by 
the Parliament, nor promulgated into law before referendum 
approval of the new Constitution; the new Constitution 
provides the legal basis for the election law.  There is 
broad agreement in the executive and among parliamentary 
leaders, however, on the need for de facto parliamentary 
approval of the provisions of the new law as soon as 
possible.  End note.) 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
10. (C) The need for a referendum delay beyond the November 
27 date has been anticipated for some time, given delays 
experienced in getting voter registration materials 
distributed and subsequent delays in the registration 
process.  It will be very important politically to respect 
the new December 18 target to obtain timely approval of the 
new constitution, and politically to ease the way for the 
next and final extension of the Transition period through 
June 30, 2006.   That approval must be voted by the 
parliament before December 31.  More encouraging are the 
continuing progress in reported registration numbers and the 
new GDRC pledge of money to finance the elections.  While the 
pledge is welcome, we caution that GDRC financial promises 
represent something less than guarantees.  In addition, there 
will be continuing concerns about availability of money and 
resources in time to permit needed operations to be completed 
per the work schedule to ensure all key milestones in the 
election calendar can be maintained.  End comment. 
MEECE