 |
|
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
DRC: Supreme Court considers petition to maintain election date
KINSHASA, 14 Sep 2006 (IRIN) - Congo's Supreme Court began on Thursday to review a petition filed by the Independent Electoral Commission to retain 29 October as the date for the run-off in the presidential polls, Court First President Benoit Lwamba Bindu said.
He said the court had been asked to maintain the date because of the commission's "inability to hold a second round within the deadline". He was referring to a constitutional requirement that a second-round vote be held within 15 days of the declaration of the first-round results. These were announced on 20 August.
The two candidates in the run-off, President Joseph Kabila and Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba, met in the capital, Kinshasa, to discuss maintaining peace during the election and confining the army to barracks during the poll on 29 October.
Wednesday's meeting, attended by the country's two other vice-presidents, was the first between Kabila and Bemba since fighting broke out in the city between their guards on 20 August.
No official government statement was issued after the meeting but in a statement beforehand, representatives of both candidates said they had committed themselves to conditions set by the country's media monitoring body throughout the electoral process.
"The commitment we signed is aimed at cooling political tension in order to ensure a smooth transition and a peaceful second round and post-electoral period," they said.
Fighting had erupted shortly before the Independent Electoral Commission issued preliminary election results, which Kabila won with 44.8 percent of the votes while Bemba garnered 20 percent, against the required 50 percent plus one vote to be declared the outright winner.
Defence Minister Adolphe Onusumba said the meeting between the two candidates would be followed by one of the Defence Council, which comprises all four vice-presidents and the country's top defence and security officials.
A committee comprising representatives of the United Nations and diplomats accredited to Kinshasa, known by its French acronym, the CIAT, had called for the confinement of the entire army to barracks to ensure a peaceful election.
Signs of improved relations were apparent between Kabila and Bemba after the intervention of South African President Thabo Mbeki, European Union foreign policy and security chief, Javier Solana, and the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland, all of whom visited the country recently.
The run-off polls would complete Congo's transition to peace and democracy after years of civil strife. Although civil war in the country officially ended in 2003, the east has remained volatile, with militiamen and renegade soldiers frequently attacking civilians and the army. At least four million Congolese have died as a result of civil strife, most from hunger and preventable diseases. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
ei/fo/js/oss/mw
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
