AFRICA/DR CONGO - Catholic Bishops express appreciation for certain points of the new draft electoral Bill

Saturday, 21 January 2006

Kinshasa (Fides Service) - The Catholic Bishops of the Democratic Republic of Congo have welcomed the adoption of proportional representation in the draft electoral law.
“The Bishops’ Conference of Congo CENCO having studied the draft law on elections, presidential, legislative, provincial, urban, municipal and local, was pleased to note an improvement in this latest draft of the document” said a CENCO statement. The Bishops approve of other points in the draft Bill: “We consider the norms given in articles referring to local exposition of electoral lists and results and local vote-counting guarantees for free and transparent elections. We consider norms with regard to representation of women and persons with a disability a sign of significant progress”.
However the Bishops suggested that certain priorities should be kept in mind: ascertain the moral integrity of candidates, guarantee all candidates access to the media respecting the principle of equality, provide assistance to voters unable to vote on their own.
“With regard to the right to vote, which is a civil right, CENCO would prefer for it to be presented not as an option but rather as a duty for every eligible voter” the statement read.
“Seeing the difficulties encountered during the referendum and considering the complexity of the present voting paper, CENCO warmly recommends an immediate programme to explain to voters how to vote in order to avoid numerous cases of involuntary null votes” the statement concluded.
General elections in Congo are planned for 30 June 2006. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 21/1/2006 righe 29 parole 292)


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