Kabila admits vote flaws but defends his re-election

KINSHASA, Monday

President Joseph Kabila admitted on Monday there were flaws in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s elections which handed him a new five-year term but rejected a report finding they lacked credibility.

The assessment was Kabila’s first public statement since the bitterly disputed November 28 vote, whose outcome sparked violent protests in the capital and was criticised by international observers and the country’s powerful church.

“Were there mistakes, errors? Definitely, like in any other election, be it on the continent or otherwise,” Kabila, in power since 2001, told a news conference in Kinshasa with journalists including the BBC.

“But does it put in doubt the credibility of the elections? I don’t think so,” he added. In a damning report on the polls, international observers from the Carter Center, a non-profit group founded by former US president Jimmy Carter, said Saturday the counting process was so flawed the results “lack credibility”.

Kabila said Monday he rejected that assessment. “The credibility of these elections cannot be put in doubt,” he said.

Scathing review

But the polls got another scathing review Monday from the National Episcopal Conference of the Congo, the country’s Catholic bishops’ council, which deployed some 30,000 observers nationwide, the largest monitoring group on voting day.

“The Conference’s observations pose a serious question about the credibility of these elections, as the Carter Center report has just attested,” the archbishop of Kinshasa, Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo, told journalists.

“The results announced by the CENI (Independent National Electoral Commission) on December 9 comply with neither truth nor justice,” said the archbishop, who is a powerful public figure in the largely Catholic country.

Election officials announced Friday that Kabila had defeated veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi 49 per cent to 32 per cent in the polls, just the second since the end of back-to-back wars from 1996 to 2003 and the first to be organised locally.

The announcement sparked an eruption of violent protests and looting in parts of Kinshasa, which was met with a crackdown by police and some 20,000 soldiers deployed to the capital.

At least four people died in the unrest. Tshisekedi immediately rejected the outcome and declared himself the legitimately elected president.

Candidates have until Tuesday to file election disputes at the supreme court, which is charged with reviewing the result and declaring the official winner by December 17.

But Tshisekedi said he refused to take his dispute to the court, which is seen as close to Kabila, and hinted he could call mass protests.

“We’re waiting for a sign from the international community. That doesn’t prevent people from using their right to protest peacefully in the meantime,” said spokesman Albert Moleka.

Traffic in Kinshasa had largely returned to normal Monday after unrest had reduced the usual bustle of the sprawling city of 10 million to an eerie quiet.

But human rights groups and residents of neighbourhoods where Tshisekedi enjoys strong support accused security forces of raiding houses and randomly arresting young men, using excessive force against detainees and stealing money and cell phones from locals.

Police on Monday showed journalists a group of 19 detainees at the rapid intervention unit’s headquarters whom officers said had been caught carrying petrol bombs, selling drugs to fuel rioting and looting a pro-Kabila church.

“God, why have you abandoned me?” said one detainee. “We were told to go to work, I opened my store, they came and arrested me. I’m a father of three, I’m not a criminal.”

Despite a warning in France that the situation in the DR Congo was “explosive”, Kabila said the country was calm, and defended the actions of the security forces.

“You’ve definitely seen violence from the people who have tried to loot shops in town, you’ve definitely seen violence from the opposition. Have you seen violence from the security forces? I don’t think so,” he said.

“If we were to have violence from the security forces — you’ll agree with me — that we could have had tens if not hundreds of deaths. It’s not the case. The Congo is a democracy.”