SA: DRC elections credible

2006-11-21 18:33

Pretoria - The elections, including vote counting, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were democratic, peaceful, credible and remarkably transparent, said the South African observer mission in their final report released on Tuesday.

Deputy minister of defence, Mluleki George, who headed the group, said voting in the country took place in a "reasonably peaceful" environment and counting was "remarkably transparent".

"The mission is of the view that space was created for the people of the DRC to freely choose their representative leaders," he said.

The provisional results from the October 29 run-off elections showed President Joseph Kabila winning the election by 58.05% against vice-president and former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba's 41.95% of the vote.

"The mission concludes that 29 October 2006 presidential run-off and provincial elections were conducted in a climate conducive for a democratic expression of the will of the people of the DRC and therefore calls on all Congolese to accept the outcome of the elections," said George.

Largest observer mission

He said this included the ruling of the supreme court on Bemba's challenge of the election.

The 108-member South African observer mission was the largest observer mission in the country during the elections and were deployed in all eleven provinces in the DRC.

George said it did not observe any major incidents of irregularities with the voting process, but was concerned about a few incidents of violence in the eastern part of the country.

This included the killing of two staff members of the DRC's Independent Electoral Commission in Ituri.

"The mission views these incidents in a serious light and regrets the loss of life. These isolated incidents, regrettable as they were, did not have material effect on the conduct of the elections," said George.

"The mission believes that the people of DRC have suffered enough over the years and deserve peace and stability in their motherland."

- SAPA