DRC: Senate elections (pub. Jan. 29, 2007)
Searching more than 75 years of world history
Provisional results published on Jan. 20, 2007, by the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), indicated that parties allied to President Joseph Kabila had won a majority of seats in elections to the 108-member Senate (the upper chamber of the DRC’s bicameral legislature) held on Jan. 19, 2007. Kabila’s coalition (the Alliance for the Presidential Majority--AMP) won 56 seats, whereas the Union for the Nation (UpN) coalition, led by former Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba, secured 18 seats, according to a report published on Jan. 20, 2007, by the Reuters news agency. The members of the 108-seat Senate were elected by legislators from the DRC’s 11 provincial assemblies, choosing from a list of some 1,124 candidates.
Immediate Context
The results appeared to have extended the AMP’s domination of the legislature, after Kabila’s coalition was reported to have won 332 seats in elections held in July 2006 to the 500-member National Assembly (the lower chamber). Provisional results published in September indicated that the AMP had won only 200 seats in the lower chamber. Kabila, who succeeded to the presidency following the assassination of Laurent-Désiré Kabila (his father) in January 2001, was sworn in for a five-year term as President in December 2006, having won a presidential election held in July and October. The holding of multiparty elections in the DRC was made possible by the adoption in February 2006 of a new constitution, which had been approved by the bicameral transitional legislature in May 2005, and then by some 84 per cent of voters in a national referendum held in December 2005. The elections were the culmination of a UN-supervised transition process aimed at ending decades of dictatorship and war. The South African Observer Mission (SAOM), which had monitored the elections held in July and October, described the proceedings as "democratic, peaceful, credible and remarkably transparent". Kabila’s transitional government was formed in July 2003 after the signing of a peace agreement, bringing a formal end to a five-year war between government forces, supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, and rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda. About 3.9 million people died during the war, mostly from preventable diseases rather than violence.
Reaction and outlook
The holding of elections in the DRC was widely regarded to herald a new era but some analysts predicted that Kabila’s dominance of the legislature would provoke the Bemba-led opposition to create political conflict in an attempt to undermine his authority, an outcome which was by many observers deemed the President’s greatest and most pressing challenge. On Jan. 24, 2007, Bemba himself threatened to "use, whenever necessary ... all means available ... under the constitution, notably protests, strikes and other legal paths of resistance ... to show ... disapproval ... of a dictatorial regime behind a democratic façade".
Historical context
Upon achieving independence from Belgium in 1960, the DRC was plagued by five years of civil conflict, culminating on Nov. 25, 1965, in the seizing of power by Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngebendu wa za Banga in a military coup widely believed to have been backed by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). President Mobutu announced on Oct. 27, 1971 that the country's name had been changed from the DRC, by which it had been officially known since 1967, to the Republic of Zaire . Mobutu’s authoritarian regime came to an end when he was forced to flee the country in May 1997 in the face of an armed insurgency led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila (the father of Joseph Kabila, the current President), who immediately assumed the presidency and announced that the DRC had been reformed. The war between government forces and rebel groups erupted in August 1998 when Banyamulenge Tutsis rebels from the east of the country staged a rebellion against Kabila’s rule. The President died in a hospital in Zimbabwe on Jan. 18, 2001, where he had been flown after being shot by a presidential bodyguard in Kinshasa on Jan. 16, 2001. His son, Joseph Kabila, was immediately named as interim President and inaugurated as President on Jan. 26, 2001. In March and June 2004 troops loyal to the President put down a coup attempt by disgruntled members of the presidential guard, including those believed to be loyal to Mobutu (who died in exile in September 1997)..
Timeline
- December 2006 President Joseph Kabila is inaugurated for a five year term.
- November 2006 President Joseph Kabila is confirmed as the winner of the second round of presidential elections held in October.
- October 2006 The 500-member National Assembly (the lower chamber of the bicameral legislature) confirms the mandate of 498 of its members elected in July.
- September 2006 Provisional results of elections to the National Assembly indicate that President Kabila's Alliance for the Presidential Majority (AMP) has won about 200 seats.
- August 2006 Post-election violence.
- July 2006 Presidential and legislative elections.
- April 2006 Announcement of elections.
- February 2006 Promulgation of new constitution.
- December 2005 Constitutional referendum.
- November 2005 Government troops launch a military operation in the south-eastern province of Katanga to re-establish the state’s authority in the area.
- September 2005 UN Security Council resolution increases the strength of the UN Organisation Mission in the DRC (MONUC); reports of a new rebel group, the Congolese Revolutionary Movement (MRC).
- June 2005 Extension of mandate of transitional government; report on the role of gold companies in the conflict.
- May 2005 Legislative approval of new constitution; arrest of as many as 100 people after attempt to secede from the DRC by the south-eastern province of Katanga.
- February 2005 UN peacekeepers killed in an ambush in the troubled north-eastern district of Ituri; UN announces tough new measures aimed at halting sex abuse by its peacekeepers; outbreak of pneumonic plague at a diamond mine near Zobia.
- December 2004 Tensions with Rwanda after UN peacekeepers confirm the presence of Rwandan soldiers in the east of the DRC.
- June 2004 President Joseph Kabila accuses Rwanda of helping renegade government soldiers to seize the eastern town of Bukavu; government troops put down a coup attempt by disgruntled members of the presidential guard.
- March 2004 Launch of a coup attempt in Kinshasa by forces believed to be loyal to the late former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.
- November 2003 The UN Security Council condemns the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the DRC.
- July 2003 President Joseph Kabila signs a decree to form new transitional government.
- April 2003 Signing of peace agreement at the end of Inter-Congolese National Dialogue peace talks; new estimates of casualty figures in civil war.
- March 2003 Agreement on draft constitution after negotiations in South Africa.
- February 2003 Agreement on Ugandan troop withdrawal from the violence-torn north-east of the DRC.
- December 2002 The government and rebel groups sign a power-sharing agreement aimed at ending the conflict; UN Security Council resolution authorising the expansion of MUNOC.
- October 2002 Withdrawal of Rwandan troops from the DRC; UN report on the plundering of natural resources in the DRC.
- September 2001 Upsurge in fighting in the centre and the east of the DRC.
- August 2001 Opening of the Inter-Congolese National Dialogue.
- January 2001 Assassination and burial of President Laurent-Désiré Kabila; inauguration of President Joseph Kabila.
- April 2000 New ceasefire agreement between all of the participants in the DRC’s civil war.
- September 1999 Inconclusive talks between the leaders of the rival factions within the RCD in the South African city of Johannesburg; violations of the Lusaka peace accord.
- August 1999 Signing of the Lusaka peace accord by the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC).
- March 1999 Reports of intense fighting, mainly in eastern areas of the DRC.
- February 1999 Launch of major offensives by rebel forces; reported splits in rebel leadership; dismissal of government; Issue of decree lifting the government's ban on political gatherings and on the formation of political parties.
- November 1998 Growing international involvement in the civil war; claims of success by both sides; renewal of peace efforts.
- September 1998 Revival of ethnic tensions.
- August 1998 Rebellion against the government of President Laurent-Désiré Kabila, marking the start of a five-year war.
- February 1998 Reports of the national army defeating rebel forces near the eastern town of Bunia.
- December 1997 Announcement of measures designed to tighten discipline in the armed forces in the wake of fractional unrest within the military.
- September 1997 Death of former President Mobutu.
- June 1997 Outline of President Laurent Kabila’s policy priorities; arrival of UN inquiry team in the DRC to investigate evidence that troops loyal to Kabila had massacred Rwandan Hutu refugees.
- May 1997 Fall of President Mobutu; establishment of the DRC; formation of new government and inauguration of President Laurent Kabila.
- July 1960 Withdrawal of Belgian troops from the Congo.
