DRC ELECTIONS: CHALLENGE PERIOD EXTENDED DUE TO

UNCLAS KINSHASA 001345 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV KDEM KPKO CG ELECTIONS SUBJECT: DRC ELECTIONS: CHALLENGE PERIOD EXTENDED DUE TO RECENT VIOLENCE REF: KINSHASA 1342 AND PREVIOUS ¶1. (U) The Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) has extended the period for bringing challenges to the provisional presidential election results announced August ¶20. CEI spokesman Dieudonne Mirimo said political parties and independent candidates -- the two groups authorized to raise challenges -- will be allowed to bring their cases before the Supreme Court until August 26. Before the recent violence which shut down much of downtown Kinshasa for three days (reftels),the deadline for raising electoral challenges was August 23 (three days after the announcement of provisional results),as stipulated in the DRC's electoral law. ¶2. (SBU) Mirimo said the CEI will begin delivering election material -- primarily tally sheets and other documents -- to the Supreme Court August 24. The CEI had been storing this material at its headquarters in downtown Kinshasa because the Court initially lacked sufficient storage space for the documents from the country's nearly 50,000 polling sites. The delivery of this material was delayed because of the fighting in Kinshasa August 21-23. ¶3. (SBU) According to Mirimo, the extension of the challenge period will likely delay the official announcement of final first round presidential results until the beginning of September. (Note: Provisional results were announced August ¶20. End note.) The DRC's electoral law provides the Supreme Court seven days to consider and rule upon all legal challenges brought forward. This extension, however, will not affect the scheduled date for the second-round presidential election on October 29, as the CEI had planned on having second-round presidential ballots ready for delivery in the DRC by mid-September. (Note: Second-round presidential balloting will be held the same day as provincial assembly elections. The CEI will need until the end of October to print and deliver the ballots for provincial elections, which include some 11,400 candidates. End note.) MEECE