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Presidential election | |||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 59.05% | ||||||||||||||||
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United Nations Mission |
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General elections were held in Democratic Republic of the Congo on 28 November 2011; a facultative run-off on 26 February 2012 was shelved with a change in election laws. [1] [2]
The government passed laws to abolish the second round of the presidential election and tried to change the legislative electoral system from proportional to majority representation, which was strongly criticized by the opposition. [3] [4]
International organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union raised concerns about the transparency of the elections. [5] [6]
On 8 November 2011 opposition leader Étienne Tshisekedi declared himself president saying the majority of people turned against President Kabila. [7]
On 28 November 2011 the elections were held under difficult conditions. Voting was characterized by incidents of violence throughout the country. [8] Because of violence and delays in the delivery of ballot boxes elections were extended by a second day. [9]
DR Congo's National Independent Electoral Commission has registered 32 million voters for the November elections.
Province | Registered voters |
---|---|
Kinshasa | 3,287,745 |
Bas-Congo | 1,502,939 |
Bandundu | 3,553,322 |
Equateur | 3,960,643 |
Orientale | 3,886,524 |
North Kivu | 3,003,246 |
South Kivu | 2,022,960 |
Maniema | 874,809 |
Katanga | 4,627,302 |
Kasai Oriental | 2,643,905 |
Kasai Occidental | 2,661,245 |
Total | 32,024,640 |
The first results released on 2 December 2011, with 15% of the vote counted (mostly in areas considered Kabila strongholds), gave Kabila only a narrow lead of 940,000 votes against 912,000 votes for UPDS leader Tshisekedi. [10]
With half the precincts counted, Kabila was leading with 4.9 million votes, or nearly 49%. His opponent Etienne Tshisekedi was trailing with 3.4 million votes, about 34%. [11] However, this count did not include much of Kinshasa, where Tshisekedi was expected to have strong results.[ citation needed ] Kabila ceased all email and SMS services nationwide. It has been also said[ by whom? ] that over 5,000,000 of ballot papers were pre-ticked for the number 3 candidate (Kabila), but no formal actions were taken by the CENI.[ citation needed ] Some witnesses said that young men had beaten election officials who tried to bring in fraudulent ballots, which were subsequently burned. [12]
The announcement of final results was postponed to 8 December 2011; with over two thirds of the vote counted, Kabila led with 46% to Tshisekedi's 36%. [13]
The Independent National Electoral Commission declared Kabila as the winner on December 9. The result was put into question by the Carter Center as well as the archbishop of Kinshasa, Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, claiming too many irregularities occurred to assure that the results reflected the will of the people. [14] The Carter Center indicated that ballots had been missing in some areas while in others Kabila achieved unrealistic results. [14] Observers from the Carter Center noted that in some districts voter turnout was reported to be 100 percent, which is extremely unlikely. [15] MONUSCO, the peacekeeping mission of the United Nations, also voiced concern about the results. [15]
While Kabila admitted that some mistakes had been made in the process, he rejected concerns about the outcome. The result was confirmed by the Supreme Court of the Democratic Republic of Congo. [16]
Jerome Kitoko, President of the Supreme Court, announcing the official results proclaimed Kabila to be the winner of the presidential election. [16] [17]
Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Joseph Kabila | Independent | 8,880,944 | 48.95 | |
Étienne Tshisekedi | Union for Democracy and Social Progress | 5,864,775 | 32.33 | |
Vital Kamerhe | Union for the Congolese Nation | 1,403,372 | 7.74 | |
Léon Kengo | Union of Forces for Change | 898,362 | 4.95 | |
Antipas Mbusa | Independent | 311,787 | 1.72 | |
Nzanga Mobutu | Union of Mobutist Democrats | 285,273 | 1.57 | |
Jean Andeka | Alliance of Congolese Nationalist Believers | 128,820 | 0.71 | |
Adam Bombolé | Independent | 126,623 | 0.70 | |
François Nicéphore Kakese | Union for the Revival and the Development of Congo | 92,737 | 0.51 | |
Josué Alex Mukendi | Independent | 78,151 | 0.43 | |
Oscar Kashala | Union for the Rebuilding of Congo | 72,260 | 0.40 | |
Total | 18,143,104 | 100.00 | ||
Valid votes | 18,143,104 | 95.94 | ||
Invalid/blank votes | 768,468 | 4.06 | ||
Total votes | 18,911,572 | 100.00 | ||
Registered voters/turnout | 32,024,640 | 59.05 | ||
Source: African Elections Database |
The rebels in the 2012 East D.R. Congo conflict said Kabila was not the legal winner of the election and must resign.
The earliest known human settlements in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been dated back to the Middle Stone Age, approximately 90,000 years ago. The first real states, such as the Kongo, the Lunda, the Luba and Kuba, appeared south of the equatorial forest on the savannah from the 14th century onwards.
Politics of the Democratic Republic of Congo take place in the framework of a republic in transition from a civil war to a semi-presidential republic.
Joseph Kabila Kabange is a Congolese politician and military officer who was the fourth President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2001 to 2019. He took office ten days after the assassination of his father, President Laurent-Désiré Kabila in the context of the Second Congo War. He was allowed to remain in power after the 2003 Pretoria Accord ended the war as the president of the country's new transitional government. He was elected as president in 2006 and re-elected in 2011 for a second term. Since stepping down after the 2018 election, Kabila, as a former president, serves as a senator for life. Kabila was the country's second-longest serving president.
Étienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba was a Congolese politician and the leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), formerly the main opposition political party in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). A long-time opposition leader, he served as Prime Minister of the country on three brief occasions: in 1991, 1992–1993, and 1997. He was also the father of the current President, Felix Tshisekedi.
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Vital Kamerhe Lwa Kanyiginyi Nkingi is a Congolese politician, currently serving as Deputy Prime Minister of Economy and the leader of the Union for the Congolese Nation (UNC) party. He served as the President of the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2006 to 2009. After resigning from that office, he went into the opposition and founded the UNC. He ran in the 2011 presidential election. He supported Félix Tshisekedi as a coalition partner in the 2018 presidential election, and became chief of staff when Tshisekedi took office.
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