DRC elections in the balance

THE killing of a Movement for the Liberation of the Congo candidate this week may have marked the turning point in the build-up to the elections in Congo tomorrow.

Marcus Gangale was shot dead near his home in the Bandal neighbourhood of Kinshasa.

This prompted former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba to issue a last-minute call from jail for the opposition to unite behind a single candidate against President Joseph Kabila.

Bemba, the runner-up in the 2006 election, is prevented from standing this time because he is on trial for war crimes at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

However, his MLC party is the biggest opposition group in parliament, and he still has strong grassroots support in the vast central African country.

"I call on all the opposition candidates to assume their responsibilities and organise a united front around a single candidate to guarantee an alternative to the current regime," he wrote in a letter released by his party. "It is not too late to save the country."

He praised the country's three leading opposition candidates - Etienne Tshisekedi, Vital Kamerhe and Leon Kengo wa Dondo - without giving exclusive backing to any of them, making the impact of his appeal hard to predict.

Bemba was narrowly beaten by Kabila in a second-round runoff in 2006 in polls that were marred by clashes between armed supporters of the two sides. Hundreds of people were killed in the capital.

He was arrested in 2008 in Belgium on an ICC warrant for alleged crimes committed by his rebels in the neighbouring Central African Republic in 2002.

The tension in Kinshasa has been building this week. A crowd outside Tshisekedi's Union for Democracy and Social Progress headquarters expressed anger at what they called a "corrupt" electoral commission, the CENI. Many complained that they could not find their names on voters' lists.

The CENI responded by announcing that all voters with a legitimate voting card would be able to vote at the polling station where they were registered.

Others voiced concerns about "fictitious" polling stations. Several people in the crowd promised violence if Tshisekedi didn't win. "What happened in Ivory Coast will be nothing compared with what will happen here," said one.

The biggest concern is the readiness of the CENI. More than 50 aircraft provided by SA, the UN, Angola and others are delivering election materials. It seems unlikely the country will be ready by tomorrow, and a last-minute postponement seems likely.

It is unclear whether the SA government is "unofficially" supporting any of the candidates.

Jacob Zuma was in Lubumbashi earlier this month to sign a memo-randum of understanding on a proposed hydro-electric dam project, the Grand-Inga project.

British MP Eric Joyce has named Zuma's nephew and head of controversial Aurora Empowerment Systems, Khulubuse Zuma, and Jacob Zuma's former lawyer, Michael Hulley, in recent reports, alleging their participation in shady deals with Kabila regarding rights for an oil-drilling block in eastern Congo.

Tshise kedi was in SA early this month. In an interview with the Sunday Times last week, he confirmed meeting Kgalema Mot lanthe and Gwede Mantashe.

He also confirmed that several SA businessmen had given him the use of a helicopter and a DC-3 aircraft in which to travel in the DRC. - With Reuters