Southern Africa is looking ahead to a busy second half of 2006
with presidential and general elections lined up in three
countries, with more focus on the Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC) polls.
Analysts here said the key issues in the national elections that
take place in DRC, Madagascar and Zambia center on the standards
for the consolidation of democracy set by the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) electoral guidelines, and on the
challenges of gender equity.
The SADC Principles and Guidelines governing democratic
elections were adopted by the Summit of the Heads of State and
Government in August 2004 at Grand Baie, Mauritius. The guidelines
have since been tested in countries such as Mauritius, United
Republic of Tanzania and Zimbabwe that had elections in 2005.
Consolidation of democracy
?
In DRC, Joseph Kabila is leading a transitional government that was
put together via a 2003 peace agreement signed in South Africa
initially planned to end in June last year but parliament extended
its mandate to allow for more time to prepare for elections. The
Independent Electoral Commission has enrolled over 20 million
eligible voters from a total population of 60 million.
The analysts said democracy took a historic step forward when
President Kabila promulgated a new electoral law in May that set
the initial date of elections for June 18 but were postponed to
July 30 following a request from the electoral commission for more
time to prepare for the exercise. This will be the first democratic
election coming after more than 40 years since independence from
Belgium in 1960, they said.
Madagascar will hold its presidential elections on December 3
after the High Court accepted a proposal by the government to have
the polls a few weeks earlier than planned.
The government said it wished to hold elections earlier to avoid
disruption due to bad weather and sought the court's position on
whether the adjustment to the date would violate the constitution.
Zambia is also expected to hold elections later this year.
President Levy Mwanawasa is facing a stiff challenge from two
opposition alliances and another party, the Patriotic Front in the
presidential elections expected towards year-end.
Preliminary campaigns have been dominated by the constitutional
debate with demands that the first-past-the-post system of electing
the president be scrapped from the constitution to ensure that a
president is elected via a 50-percent-plus-one vote majority
system. The government has formulated a new electoral law that also
provides for transparent ballot boxes.
Angola is also fast-tracking preparations for its first post-
war elections, which will consolidate current gains from economic
and political stability and set the country firmly on a path to
sustainable peace and economic growth, but the elections are
unlikely to take place this year as government is still registering
voters and preparing for all the necessary logistics.
Featuring gender equity
?
The countries' national elections will also face a challenging
issue of gender equity that has been witnessed in the last decade
throughout the region.
As the region moves to correct gender imbalances, especially in
areas of decision making, more and more women are encouraged to vie
for positions as political leaders.
In DRC, five women have already paid the nomination fee pegged
at US$50,000 to challenge President Joseph Kabila in the
forthcoming polls.
The women who will contest presidency are Florentine Bonza
Mokanda of the Convention of the Christian Democrats (CCD), Justine
Kasavubu M'poyo who heads the Democrats Movement and Marie- Therese
N'landu who will contest on the Party for Peace in Congo (CONGO Pa)
ticket.
The other female candidates are Wiviene N'landu of the Union for
Defence of the Republic (UDR) and Catherine Marthe wa Mbombo Nzuzi
of the Popular Movement of the Revolution (PMR).
In Zambia, the Forum for Democracy and Development, headed by
female opposition leader Edith Nawakwi, formed the alliance with
the United National Independence Party (UNIP) and the United Party
for National Development, which will field one presidential
candidate. Nawakwi served as a cabinet minister under immediate
past president, Fredrick Chiluba.
(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2006)
