SECOND ROUND DR CONGO PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN SET TO

UNCLAS KINSHASA 001484 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV KDEM CG ELECTIONS SUBJECT: SECOND ROUND DR CONGO PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN SET TO OPEN OCTOBER 13 REF: A. KINSHASA 1451 ¶B. KINSHASA 1472 ¶1. (U) DR Congo's Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) has set the dates for official campaigning in the October 29 second-round presidential and provincial assembly elections. CEI President Abbe Apollinaire Malu Malu announced that the presidential campaign will last 15 days, from October 13 through October 27. Provincial assembly campaigns will run from September 28 to October 27, a total of 30 days. ¶2. (U) The CEI has also initiated the process for printing the presidential ballots with the validation of first-round presidential results September 15 (ref A). Malu Malu said the mock-up ballot was sent the following day to printers in South Africa, and will take up to 15 days to prepare. He said it will take nearly 26 days to transport the material from South Africa to the CEI's 210 training and education sites throughout the country, and another 10 days to deliver them to the nearly 50,000 voting stations. ¶3. (U) Printing and delivery of provincial assembly ballots and election kits (ballot boxes, voting booths, etc.) is well under way. The CEI has confirmed that nearly all provincial ballots have been printed. The first delivery arrived in Kinshasa September 16 from South Africa. More than 20,000 election kits have been distributed thus far. Malu Malu said delivery of all materials will require more than 100 round-trip flights between South Africa and the DRC, plus nearly 200 helicopter transport flights within the country. ¶4. (U) Delly Sesanga, Minister of Plan and a member of Vice President Bemba's MLC party's political bureau, told Radio Okapi September 21 that the party objects to the 15-day campaign as insufficient for a nationwide campaign. A representative of President Kabila's PPRD told the same station the day before that it accepts the calendar. ¶5. (U) Comment. The October 13 start date for the campaign could in fact be in Bemba's interest, as it increases the odds that his media outlets, destroyed by a fire September 18 (ref B),will be up and running again by that time. End comment. MEECE