Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05KINSHASA1070
2005-06-29 14:48:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kinshasa
Cable title:  

ELECTIONS: MIXED COMMITTEE APPROVES OPERATING

Tags:  KDEM PGOV KPKO CG 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 001070 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/29/2015
TAGS: KDEM PGOV KPKO CG
SUBJECT: ELECTIONS: MIXED COMMITTEE APPROVES OPERATING
BUDGET

Classified By: PolCouns MSanderson, reasons 1.4 b/d.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 001070

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/29/2015
TAGS: KDEM PGOV KPKO CG
SUBJECT: ELECTIONS: MIXED COMMITTEE APPROVES OPERATING
BUDGET

Classified By: PolCouns MSanderson, reasons 1.4 b/d.


1. (C) Summary: At the urgent request of the Minister of
the Interior, the electoral "Comite de Pilotage" (the
oversight committee composed of ambassadors from donor
countries, UNDP, MONUC and Congolese ministers involved in
the elections process) met June 29 to review progress on
voter registration and address roadblocks to electoral
security. Independent Electoral Commission President Malu
Malu noted that after a few initial hiccups, almost 250,000
eligible voters have been registered in Kinshasa in just 8
days (of an estimated 3 million plus eligible voters),and
said that about 50,000 new voters are now being registered
daily at the 17 sites operating, with 4 new sites to be
opened possibly as soon as this weekend. Malu Malu and the
Minister of Interior highlighted concerns with police
salaries, equipment and transport which could negatively
affect the GDRC's ability to secure the elections, pointing
to delays by UNDP in disbursing necessary funds. The UNDP
responded by saying that it was not clear that the Comite had
actually approved the proposed GDRC elections security
budget, which includes an estimate of the cost of providing
arms to the police, an item which most donors are legally
prohibited from funding. The Minister of Defense noted that
he is working on transfering to the police operational arms
collected from demobilized soldiers, and when the Minister of
Interior clarified that the budget should be approved minus
the line item on armaments, the Comite agreed, laying the
groundwork for the UNDP to begin fully funding the elections
security process. The Vice Minister of Finance also said
that the GDRC electoral contribution ($4m) will be provided
to the Basket Fund within seven days. End Summary.

Voter Registration Picking Up Speed
--------------


2. (C) Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) President Malu
Malu said that, after an unexpectedly late start due to
holdups in delivering the voter registration machines (the
plane carrying the machines broke down and was stranded
several days in Libya),registration got underway June 20 in
Kinshasa. Only eight days later, he said that the CEI has

registered almost 250,000 people in its 17 operational
centers, and is processing about 50,000 people daily. These
totals should continue to increase, he said, given that the
CEI is preparing to open an additional 4 registration centers
(probably this weekend). Despite a few initial glitches, he
projected that the Kinshasa registration process (which
ultimately will encompass slighly more than 3 million voters)
should be completed on time.


3. (C) Of course there had been some initial obstacles,
including operator errors, initial difficulties with
identifying and deploying the police to secure the
registration sites (and ongoing problems with ensuring their
pay, food and transport),gasoline for the vehicles
distribuing the machines to the sites, and ensuring that
citizens actually went to their authorized registration
centers and registered only once. Malu Malu said that the
gasoline problem appears to have been solved thanks to an
UNDP contract with local gas stations. (Comment: Malu Malu
told Ambassador privately that the problem had been that only
one local supplier had been identified, which was not able to
keep up with the demand. The UNDP has now identified
additional gasoline suppliers. End Comment.) Regarding
registration fraud, he said that the CEI so far has
identified 7 cases of multiple registration and expects to
launch on Monday July 4 the first criminal prosecutions
against 4 of the individuals (the other 3 might have been
accidentally been registered more than once due to operator
error). The representative from the Ministry of Justice
confirmed his Ministry's willingness to quickly file criminal
charges and prosecute the individuals accused of multiple
registration. In response to a question from the Angolan
Ambassador regarding registration for individuals with only
one Congolese parent, the Justice rep said that per the
Nationality Law these individuals should probably be
Congolese citizens and entitled to vote, although Malu Malu
added that these applications will be considered on a
case-by-case basis. (Comment: Maintaining the legitimacy of
the registration process -- by prosecuting fraudulent
registrations and other means -- is key to ensuring that the
UPDS campaign to urge people not to vote does not gain
ground. So far there is no indication that people are
staying away from the registration sites; on the contrary,
some people have to come back on a second day to complete
registration due to the large numbers of applicants. That
said, Malu Malu comment separately to Ambassador that there
had been three small security incidents at registration sites
the morning of June 29, none serious. End Comment.) Malu
Malu also noted that voter education campaigns underway in
Kinshasa are now being conducted in local neighborhoods in
Lingala, and a broader campaign for television and radio in
various languages was approved by President Kabila last week
and should soon be implemented.

Ensuring Effective Security
--------------


4. (C) The crux of the June 28 meeting was ensuring that
police, who have the principle responsibility for securing
voter registration sites and, ultimately, polling stations,
are appropriately trained, equipped and maintained. This
includes salary payments, rehabilitating 76 command and
control centers for police operations, rehabilitating a
police training academy in Bukavu, South Kivu province,
purchasing equipment for police in Kinshasa, Bas-Congo and
Province Orientale (the latter two are scheduled to begin
registration in July),and ensuring transport and fuel for
transporting police. (Note: The budget also included an
estimate of the cost of supplying the police with necessary
arms and ammunition, an item which several donor countries,
and the UNDP, noted could not legally be financed with
international contributions. End Note.) Both Malu Malu and
the Minister of Interior indicated that in large part
problems in these areas stemmed from a shortage of funds
which had not yet been released by the UNDP. In response,
the UNDP representative said that it was not clear to him
that the Comite had actually approved the proposed operating
budget, mostly because the budget included a line item on
armaments for the police. He also asked about the promised
GDRC contribution of $4m to the electoral Basket Fund which
had been pledged months ago but was not yet forthcoming.


5. (C) The Minister of Defense addressed the question of
arming the police by saying that he is developing a plan to
transfer arms from demobilized soldiers to the police (note:
most of the arms arriving in the demobilization centers are
old and broken, but Monuc representatives had said previously
that a certain percentage could still be used). After the
Minister of Interior clarified that the budget request did
not include the line item on arms and munitions for the
police, the Comite approved the request, thereby (at least in
theory) allowing the UNDP to begin disbursing fully the funds
necessary for these elements of electoral security.


6. (C) In response to several Ambassadors and SRSG Swing
demanding "what is more important than elections, that the
Congolese Finance Ministry still has not allocated the
promised funds?" the Minister of Interior noted that the
GDRC's pledge had come after the budget already had been
approved and that the delay had come simply from the need to
find an administrative mechanism to allow the funds to be
disbursed. The Vice Minister of Finance assured the
Committee that the Congolese contribution of $4m would be
given to the UNDP Basket Fund within seven working days.
(Comment: Given the Congolese track record to date we
maintain a healthy skepticism on the timing, but if nothing
else, they clearly are now alerted to the need to fulfill
their pledge. End Comment.)

Comment
--------------


7. (C) In all, a positive meeting. Hopefully funds will now
begin to flow to enable progress on the key issue of
electoral (and voter registration) security.

MEECE