Presidential and Legislative Elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo November 28, 2011 Final Report Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope. The Carter Center strives to relieve suffering by advancing peace and health worldwide; it seeks to prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and protect and promote human rights worldwide. Presidential and Legislative Elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo November 28, 2011 Final Report One Copenhill 453 Freedom Parkway Atlanta, GA 30307 (404) 420-5188 Fax (404) 420-5196 www.cartercenter.org The Carter Center Contents Foreword ..................................2 Postelection Developments ..................55 Executive Summary .........................4 Tabulation ..............................55 Presidential Election Results ................60 Historical and Political Background ...........13 Legislative Results .........................61 Electoral Institutions and Legal Framework for Electoral Dispute Resolution .................63 the Presidential and Legislative Elections ......16 Legal Framework .........................16 Conclusions and Recommendations . .66 Electoral System ..........................18 Appendix A: Acknowledgments . 73 Election Management ......................21 Appendix B: Terms and Abbreviations ........75 Boundary Delimitation .....................26 Appendix C: Letters of Invitation ............76 Pre-Election Developments ..................28 Appendix D: The Carter Center Observation Voter Registration .........................28 Delegation and Staff ........................78 Voter Education ..........................32 Appendix E: Observer Checklists.............80 Candidates and Parties .....................34 Appendix F: Deployment Map ...............89 Campaigns ..............................37 Campaign Finance ........................38 Appendix G: Carter Center Public Statements and Reports . .90 The Media ..............................41 Civil Society .............................43 The Carter Center at a Glance ..............139 Electoral Dispute Resolution .................44 Election-Related Violence ...................46 Election Day ..............................48 List of “Omitted Voters” ...................48 Opening and Polling .......................50 Closing and Vote Counting .................52 Security ................................53 Access for Domestic Observer Groups and Party Agents ............................54 The Carter Center 1 The Carter Center Foreword By Dr. John Stremlau support of the American and Dutch people, and we Vice President, The Carter Center Peace Programs give special thanks to their representatives in the Co-leader, The Carter Center International Election DRC, U.S. Ambassador James F. Entwistle and Royal Observation Mission to the DRC Netherlands Ambassador Robert van Embden. illions of Congolese citizens voted in The U.N. peacekeeping mission to the DRC, national elections on Nov. 28, 2011, their while much less helpful than in 2006 in ensuring Msecond opportunity to exercise this basic security during the voting, continues to play an human right since a still fragile peace accord was essential role helping secure the nation and the brokered by South Africa in April 2002 following opportunity to build a more inclusive, productive, and five years of Africa’s deadliest conflicts. The Carter equitable democratic republic. We continued to rely Center accepted invitations from the Independent on the help of the United Nations in deploying our National Elections Commission (CENI) to observe observers to distant and otherwise inaccessible voting the 2006 and the 2011 elections. On both occasions, precincts, and we thank the secretary-general’s special we witnessed the spirit of the Congolese people and represent ative Roger Meece and his team for their a determination to vote that deserves continued advice and assistance. One major difference between international support and encouragement. These the 2006 and 2011 elections was that the United two national elections are rightly regarded to be the Nations ran and international donors paid for the first freest and most inclusive since Belgian colonialism round, but the Congolese authorities managed and collapsed in 1960. mostly paid for last year’s election. As the following report details, there were Not covered in this report is a parallel Carter many challenges in the conduct of these elections, Center project to assist in the training and develop- especially the compilation of results, which also ment of a large cohort of domestic observers who also should be a cause for continuing international played a vital role in monitoring the conduct of the interest and concern. Problems with registration, 2011 election. The Center’s partnership with civil voter lists, long lines, complex voting procedures society organizations in the DRC, under the terms of and candidate lists, and instances of intimidation a memorandum of understanding with the Congolese and physical danger did not deter the majority of government, reflects our deep belief in the future people from demonstrating their desire for democracy of the DRC as a stable, prosperous democracy. We and the opportunity to vote for their candidates of decided to pursue this opportunity following the 2006 choice. Promoting and protecting these rights are election and extensive consultations with Congolese responsibilities of the CENI, with the support of the authorities and civil society representatives. This government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo process continues, and we hope it will benefit from (DRC) and the active encouragement of the interna- the insights and lessons contained in this report. tional community. The second postelection statement of the We are grateful for the welcome we received from Center’s international observation mission, issued all major political actors in this vital election. We on Dec. 10, 2011, concluded that the final presiden- were honored to have as our senior mission leader tial results announced by the CENI “were not Zambia’s former president, Rupiah Banda. Our credible,” although we were unable to determine mission was funded primarily through the generous if the ranking of the candidates “necessarily would 2 The Carter Center 2011 Elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been different.” In essence, we do not know province, the CENI certified implausibly high turnout who actually won the presidential election, a finding numbers that typically favored the incumbent by reaffirmed but explained in greater detail in this margins as high as 100 percent. What we do not final report. know is how many of the votes in areas where the Supporters of the current government have vigor- incumbent has long enjoyed majority support may ously challenged our findings, noting that while there be due to vote-stuffing or how many of the lost and were shortcomings in the process, these could not mishandled ballots in the precincts where the opposi- have been on a scale to wipe out the incumbent’s tion traditionally dominates were actually due to vote 3 million-vote plurality. The opposition disagrees. suppression by authorities loyal to the incumbent. While Carter Center observers could not visit all We share these findings and the recommendations precincts in a country as vast and as deficient in basic for improving electoral practices in the hope that infrastructure as the DRC, we were able to deploy improvements will be made ahead of the upcoming long-term observers who traveled throughout the provincial and local elections and well before the country for four months to assess the political context next presidential election in 2016. The Carter Center and conduct of the elections. has observed more than 80 national elections in We readily acknowledge the huge logistical and all regions of the world. We conduct our work in technical challenges the CENI had to overcome in accordance with the Declaration of Principles for order to meet deadlines for the registration and voting International Election Observers that was adopted by that many impartial international experts believed to all the major international monitoring organizations be impossible. In many areas, our observers strongly at the United Nations in 2005; and we assess elec- commended the dedication and determination of the tions based on the country’s national legal framework local election staff and supervisors who demonstrated and its international obligations for genuine demo- that under daunting conditions, they could perform cratic elections. These widely accepted, impartial at or above international standards. Yet we also noted international principles and standards provide the that the worst examples of mismanaged voting proce- framework for the following report and we hope will dures and results compilations, which we observed gain greater acceptance and application in all future and documented, were in opposition strongholds, elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, most notably Kinshasa. Elsewhere, notably in Katanga solely for the benefit of the Congolese people. 3 The Carter Center Executive Summary he history of elections in the Democratic (with runoff between top two candidates if necessary) Republic of the Congo has been marked by to a single round plurality. Textreme challenges, starting with the 1961 Compared to 2006, the current political environ- assassination of the first elected prime minister, ment of the DRC, with its 417 political