TSHISEKEDI REMAINS DISSATISFIED WITH ELECTORAL

UNCLAS KINSHASA 000460

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV KPKO KDEM CG
SUBJECT: TSHISEKEDI REMAINS DISSATISFIED WITH ELECTORAL
PROCESS

REF: KINSHASA 409


1. (U) Etienne Tshisekedi, leader of the opposition Union for
Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS),told several hundred
party supporters March 14 that his party will participate in
national elections, but only if the electoral process is
"credible" and "fair." Tshisekedi said during a rally at UDPS
headquarters in Kinshasa that the party is willing to take
part in elections because that is the goal he and his party
"have fought for during their struggle to bring democracy" to
the DRC. Missing from Tshisekedi's announcement, though, were
his own intentions about running as a candidate for
president. UDPS supporters at the rally called on Tshisekedi
to run, but the UDPS President did not respond to their
demand.


2. (U) On the evening of March 14, Tshisekedi had a meeting
with UN Undersecretary General Jean-Marie Guehenno in
Kinshasa, during which he called for voter registration
centers to be reopened. Guehenno reportedly answered that the
Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) had the responsibility
to determine whether or not to restart the registration
process, and it had already decided that to do so would
further delay elections. Tshisekedi left the Guehenno meeting
with no comment to the waiting press.


3. (U) A minor incident later took place at the hotel where
Tshisekedi and Guehenno were meeting. UDPS activists,

SIPDIS
apparently unhappy with the outcome of Tshisekedi's meeting,
broke windows and ran into the hotel.


4. (U) The UDPS has announced it will hold another
demonstration in central Kinshasa March 22 in conjunction
with the visit of SYG Kofi Annan to the DRC. UDPS officials
said they intend to deliver a letter for Annan.


5. (U) The UDPS has recently held marches in two other cities
in the DRC to call for the reopening of registration centers.
The party demonstrated in Kananga March 7 and in Lubumbashi
March 15. Both events were conducted peacefully, and numbered
a few hundred demonstrators in each location.


6. (SBU) Comment: With Guehenno and in other private meetings
with Ambassadors, Tshisekedi continues to call for
vaguely-defined consultations to renegotiate Transition and
election procedures. In public, the UDPS still calls for
reopening general voter registration. Tshisekedi is trying to
have it both ways. Once more, he has publicly declared that
the UDPS will take part in elections. But at the same time,
he has laid out unrealistic conditions which must be met in
order to assure that participation. His continuing insistence
on reopening voter registration centers, for instance, is
patently impossible with the short time remaining before
elections. Tshisekedi will very likely not run for president,
and will try to portray his non-participation as a decision
forced on him by a biased electoral process. End comment.
MEECE