AFRICA/CONGO DR - Presidential elections only one round: the concerns of the Church

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - “The power in Kinshasa want to avoid the syndrome of the desired but unattained victory of Laurent Gbagbo, in the first round of presidential elections in Côte d'Ivoire,” says a note sent to Fides by the Peace Network for Congo promoted by the missionaries who work in the Democratic Republic of Congo. On 22 January, President Joseph Kabila promulgated the constitutional law which amends the previous rules under which the Head of State was elected by ballot in two rounds. With the constitutional amendment, the presidential elections of 27 November 27 will be the only round.

The main reasons given by the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), Kabila's party, for such a measure are reduced electoral expenditure, since it will obviously lower the cost by having a single ballot, and the desire to avoid possible violence between the 1st and 2nd round, as happened in Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire in 2010. “However, the reality is very different: what Kabila fears is the union of the opposition after the first round,” says the note. “Eliminating the mode of a two-round ballot, the PPRD intends to perform a tour de force from the first round. With a single election ballot, there is no longer the risk of facing a large opposition coalition in a fateful second round.”
Two rounds of voting, in this system, primarily serves to avoid considering that a President has been elected, in a one round majority system, with 35% of the votes like a “President of the people's minority”. With only two candidates running in the second round, the winner will necessarily receive more than 50% of the votes, despite the dissatisfaction of opponents.
On 5 January, Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, Archbishop of Kinshasa, said he was in favour of a two-round presidential ballot, so that the Head of State is elected by “a sufficiently broad base.” “In a single round electoral system, a candidate could win mathematically even with a relative majority of 20% of votes and, therefore, it is not sufficiently representative. Instead, the President should have a sufficiently broad base, where he is known everywhere and achieves at least 51% of the vote,” said Cardinal Monsengwo Pasinya, adding: “the spirit of the law invites us to reflect seriously on this issue and to not rush things.” (LM) (Agenzia Fides 24/1/2011)