A few weeks ago I published an article in this column that called for free and fair elections in the DRC. I called on the political parties participating in this election, particularly the opposition, to ensure that they take exceptional steps to protect their votes.
We have seen just too often when people in Third World authoritarian regimes cast their votes in the millions for their parties and candidates, only for these votes to be meaningless in determining who wins.
The sad thing is that this form of political behaviour is now spreading to nations that we have always assumed to be democratic. Democracy, as it were, is entering into an epoch of failure in these nations while in Africa its rise is being strangled by already established authoritarian regimes struggling desperately to prevent the popular masses from asserting their democratic rights.
Fortunately, there are African leaders who have realised the folly of authoritarian rule in terms of its very negative impact on Africa’s development. It was therefore very refreshing for four African leaders to come out clearly and call upon all progressive forces to support a free and fair election in the DRC.
They noted how critical a democratic DRC is to Africa’s future. They underlined the tremendous negative impact a rigged election would have on the DRC in particular and on Africa in general. They called upon all multilateral agencies and UN bodies interested in establishing peace in the DRC to realise that there would be no peace without a successful democratic election as envisaged in the Congolese constitution.
The world should listen to these leaders since they have been through such trying times in their own countries and are going an extra mile to tell all of us that the DRC should not relive the unfortunate history of “failed or delayed transitions” to democracy elsewhere in Africa.
To those who are not in the know, I am referring to a statement issued recently by former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga of Kenya, former Sierra Leone President Ernest Koroma and former Ghanaian President John Mahama.
This statement was the outcome of a meeting the four held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Library in Ogun State, Nigeria, to discuss the election in the DRC and offer informed advice on what needs to be done.
It does, however, look as if President Joseph Kabila is hell-bent on forcing his own unpopular candidate, his former Internal Security minister, on the Congolese people notwithstanding the clear signs that Félix Tshisekedi, the leader of the UPDS, has emerged as a sure winner, were the election to be truly free and fair.
The latest delaying tactic that Kabila has employed to rig his self-appointed candidate into power is the most diabolical.
democracy vs development
It is reported that Congo’s already long-delayed election set for this Sunday will be postponed for months in certain communities where, according to Kabila’s government, a deadly Ebola virus outbreak has infected hundreds of people.
The election in Beni and Butembo in North Kivu province, and Yumbi in Mai-Ndombe province, will be in March instead. But that will be months after the presidential election results in other areas will have been announced on January 15, 2019.
How the Kabila government intends to convince the Congolese people that a general election will therefore have been held in accordance with the tenets of democracy is impossible to fathom.
In any case, the presence of Ebola is not a good enough reason for postponing any activity, let alone an election, in the DRC. It is a fact that few would dare challenge the fact that Ebola has been a tragic feature in the life of the Congolese, particularly the poor, due to state failure and bad governance under the two Kabilas.
A few months of postponing an election will not suddenly give the government the magic wand to deal with Ebola. Let Joseph Kabila give the Congolese the honourable opportunity to send him and his ilk home so that a more legitimate and competent government can deal with both Ebola and bad governance.
There is here a general lesson that we need to learn about dismantling authoritarian regimes in Africa so as to make way for democratic governance.
The process is not always easy and straightforward, even where opposition political parties are strong and well organised, leaders are ideologically clear regarding the democratic struggle and the people are ready to rise up from their ethnic cocoons and join into broad national democratic fronts or movements.
The incumbent authoritarian regimes, using state power under the patronage of external forces, are always scheming to delay, undermine, discredit and belittle the significance of free and fair elections in promoting what they always call “development”.
I am therefore quite sure that the DRC missions in capitals such as London, Washington, Paris, Rome and Brussels must by now have told their host governments that “as far as the DRC people are concerned, fighting Ebola is much more important than holding a free and fair election.”
In other words, in Africa democracy can as well wait while we wage the struggle for development. In my view, it is more sensible to struggle for both together rather than one leads to the other sequentially.
The Kabila regime is not alone in this game of manipulating the rules of the game in holding elections. Burundi has done it in recent times with little repercussions from the global community of democratic governments.
Cameroon has for many years perfected the art. The issue of term limits for presidents is almost becoming a joke in Africa.
Just take a look at the African political map since independence: What does the balance sheet look like in terms of development between those countries which have paid more attention to good governance versus the die-hard authoritarian/autocratic regimes?
A quick comparison between the DRC and Botswana will tell you that good governance pays developmental dividends. Ghana has done much better than Sierra Leone in development, notwithstanding the latter’s rich endowment with minerals. And in both Botswana and Ghana, regime passion for development is as strong as that for democracy.
It is almost becoming an institutionalised political culture that democratic institutions are ‘normal’ in both countries; the rule of law reigns; and governments are changed through the ballot box without any major political crisis. This is what the people of the DRC are longing for as a logical partner to development.
