AMP CANDIDATES WIN KASAI GUBERNATORIAL ELECTIONS

UNCLAS KINSHASA 000186 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV KDEM CG ELECTIONS SUBJECT: AMP CANDIDATES WIN KASAI GUBERNATORIAL ELECTIONS REF: A. KINSHASA 130 ¶B. KINSHASA 179 ¶1. (U) Candidates aligned with President Kabila's Alliance for the Presidential Majority (AMP) won the February 15 gubernatorial races in Western and Eastern Kasai provinces over rivals from Jean-Pierre Bemba's Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) party. Transitional Vice Minister of Budget Tresor Kapuku, from of Azarias Ruberwa's RCD party but running as a member of the AMP, defeated the MLC's Alex Kande 28 to 26 in Western Kasai. Businessman and diamond dealer Alphonse Kasanji Ngoy won with 51 of 66 votes in Eastern Kasai over the province's outgoing MLC governor Dominique Kanku. ¶2. (U) The twin Kasai victories give the AMP coalition ten of the DRC's eleven provincial governorships. The exception is Bemba's home province of Equateur, which was won by an MLC candidate. Both Kasais voted more than three-to-one in Bemba's favor during the October 29 runoff election. AMP-aligned candidates did not win a majority in either province's provincial assemblies, although RCD candidates won a significant number of seats in each province to swing the balance. A post-provincial elections pact with Ruberwa created an AMP-RCD coalition that was able to claim the majority in both assemblies. ¶3. (U) The Kasai gubernatorial elections had been delayed twice by the DRC's Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) after charges were raised concerning the nationalities of Kande and Kanku (ref A). Opponents had charged the two candidates possessed dual citizenship making them ineligible to run for elective office according to the DRC's constitution and electoral law. Appellate courts upheld Kande's and Kanku's candidacies, rejecting the CEI's call to have the MLC replace both (ref B). ¶4. (SBU) Biographic information follows: Tresor Kapuku Tresor Kapuku, 41, was born in Kananga on November 18, 1965, and holds a 1993 law degree from the University of Lubumbashi. A long-time member of the Rally for Congolese Democracy-Goma (RCD-G),he has served as the deputy secretary general of the party's executive committee and has been the president of party's Western Kasai branch since 1994. In 2003 he was named Vice Minister of International Cooperation in the Transitional Government, and in 2004 was appointed Vice Minister of Budget. He was elected as a deputy to the National Assembly in July 2006. Alphonse Kasanji Ngoy Kasanji Ngoy, 43, is businessman and diamond dealer from the Eastern Kasai capital Mbuji-Mayi. He is the president of the Federation of Congolese Diamond Merchants (FECODI),a diamond dealers association based in Mbuji-Mayi with branches nationwide. An ethnic Luba from the Tshilenge area of Eastern Kasai, in 2000 he reportedly sold a 265-carat diamond worth nearly 20 million USD. He holds degrees in chemistry and biology, and worked as a teacher before entering the diamond business. He is considered one of the wealthiest people in Mbuji-Mayi due to his interests in the diamond trade. MEECE