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Congo has first free voting in 45 years
 After enduring the most brutal of colonial histories, more than three decades of despotic rule after independence, and five years of playing the bloody host to "Africaâs first world war", the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo finally had something to smile about yesterday: they had a free vote. Lining up before dawn at more than 40,000 polling stations across the vast country, millions of people cast their ballots on whether to accept a new constitution. It was the first genuine democratic poll in Congo since independence in 1960, and is being seen as a significant move towards stability across the entire Great Lakes region. A "yes" vote â the expected outcome â will clear the way for full elections to be held before July next year. Although three polling stations in schools were burnt down in Kinshasa, the capital, on Saturday night, voting passed off largely peacefully under the eye of tens of thousands of local police and international peacekeepers. The poll is seen by many observers as another step away from the five-year civil war that sucked in Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola before it ended officially in 2003. More than three million people died, mainly from disease and lack of food, making it the deadliest conflict since the Second World War. Since then, Congo has hosted the worldâs biggest and most expensive UN peacekeeping mission, involving 16,000 troops who have had to fight running battles with militias determined to cling on to control of the countryâs vast mineral resources. Aid donors have poured in nearly £1 billion in support of the transitional Government. In a huge operation supervised by the Blue Helmets this year, nearly 25 million people were registered to vote in the constitutional referendum and next yearâs elections. Observers from the European Union said that the turnout yesterday was high across the country. The proposed constitution has the support of most political parties in Kinshasa. It provides for a decentralised government and limits the President to two five-year terms â an important selling point given the disastrous 32-year rule of Mobutu Sese Seko, the former President. The new constitution also lowers the minimum age for presidential candidates from 35 to 30. This enables the 34-year-old transitional President, Joseph Kabila, whose father, Laurent, ousted Mobutu in 1997 before being assassinated, to run for office again next year. Another part of the constitution guarantees women half the seats in government. President Kabilaâs administration, which includes four vice-presidents and numerous former rebels, has struggled to bring a number of brutal militia groups under control, particularly in the east, which is rich in diamonds, gold and coltan (a rare metal used in microchips). Several small political parties have been agitating for people to express their dissatisfaction with their transitional leaders at the ballot. But a "no" vote â which Belgium, the former colonial power, said would be tantamount to "collective suicide" â seems unlikely. The initial results are expected today. Posted by: Pappy 2005-12-19 |
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