DR Congo forms new electoral commission

Kinshasa, Friday

A new Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) has been set up in the Democratic Republic of Congo to prepare for elections next year, the outgoing commission announced today.

Under a law promulgated by President Joseph Kabila, the CENI’s task is to organise “in full independence, neutrality and impartiality, free, democratic and transparent elections.”

The CENI replaces the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) that was an outcome of the 2002 peace accords, which ended a terrible war across the vast central African country.
Unlike the CEI which was headed by a member of civil society, the new CENI will consist uniquely of seven representatives of political parties, including four designated by the presidential majority and three by the parliamentary opposition.

Each member has a non-renewable mandate of six years.
The CENI, like its predecessor, is tasked with organising and managing elections and referenda, including voter registration and the publication of the electoral roll.

It must oversee ballot counts and the centralisation of figures before it announces the provisional results, according to the law that set it up.
General elections, including a presidential poll, are due in June 2011, five years after the 2006 votes that brought Kabila and his

supporters to power. (AFP)