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No one dies. There is no political violence connected to the elections. Journalists cover election season without intimidation or interference. Candidates campaign freely. Electoral law is not manipulated to benefit the ruling party. Opposition parties are allowed to assemble. Candidates raise and spend campaign funds transparently. Debates are public. Citizens discuss politics openly without fear of retribution. Every eligible citizen who wants to vote can vote. All eligible citizens have free and equal access to the polls, including those who are poor, illiterate, or remote. Women, youth and minority groups participate without interference. Every vote is counted. Independent observers attend voting day and oversee vote counting. The results are publicly announced and scrutinized. Contests to the results are given their day in court. Power is transferred peacefully. If an opposition candidate wins the vote, the incumbent steps down peacefully. If the incumbent is reelected, the opposition refrains from violence. Third parties, the national army, and neighboring countries respect the election results.
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US Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region In his first two years as a freshman Senator, Barack Obama wrote and attempted to pass 156 pieces of legislation. A single bill of his was signed into law. This bill, the Democratic Republic of Congo Relief, Security and Democracy Promotion Act of 2006, demanded that the President “appoint a Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region to help coordinate efforts to resolve instability and insecurity in Eastern Congo.” Following his inauguration, the President’s speech in Accra addressed the importance of free and fair elections to the democratic development of the African continent, promising that America “stand[s] ready to partner through diplomacy and technical assistance and logistical support.” A few months later in Tanzania, Assistant Secretary Johnnie Carson cited the recent peaceful transitions of power in Ghana, Mali, Benin and Senegal, as evidence of the value of free and fair elections: In Ghana, ... [Rawlings] gracefully stepped down and handed power to an opposition government after completing his constitutionally authorized two terms. His successor, John Kuffuor, did likewise last year, handing power back to the opposition after his own party lost in narrow elections. In Mali, then General Amadou Toumani Toure handed power to an elected civilian government in 1992 after having ousted an authoritarian military regime the year before. His successor Alpha Omar Konare stepped down ten years later after serving his constitutionally authorized two terms. Benin and Senegal have also benefited from the willingness of their leaders to respect constitutional mandates and elections that turn them out of office.
In the same speech, Carson celebrated the appointment of Scott Gration as the US Special Envoy to Sudan as an indication of the United States’ commitment to democracy building in Africa. In his role as Special Envoy, Gration mobilized international attention and support to pull off South Sudan’s peaceful secession referendum. His work as Envoy was marked by 24 trips to Sudan, aggressive shuttle diplomacy with Sudanese leaders and weekly coordinating calls with high-level diplomats across the globe. His work in Sudan received consistent attention in the White House and State Department - factors critical to the success of the referendum. Despite the President’s call for an Envoy in 2006 and his positive experience with Gration in 2010, he has yet to appoint a Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region. In his first year in office, Obama appointed a substitute for an Envoy, former Congressman Howard Wolpe, who served as a Special Advisor for the Great Lakes Region. His impact in this position was hampered by
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limited access to the Secretary of State, the President and heads of state in the Great Lakes region, along with bureaucratic hurdles within the State Department and a tiny staff. Wolpe retired 9 months ago and his office remains vacant today. His experience as the former Advisor highlights the need for an Envoy to have adequate resources, staff and high-level access to the President and Secretary of State. Eight months remain before Congo’s third elections in history. Now is the time for the will of Congress and the President to be fulfilled through the appointment of a Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region to focus on this year’s elections in Congo. Once appointed, a Special Envoy could raise the roughly $100 million still needed from donor governments to fund free and fair elections in Congo. Congo spans over 1 million square miles, requiring 50,000 polling stations and at least as many poll workers and independent observers. In 2006, Congo’s government paid for 10% of election costs ($60 million), while international donors provided the rest, approximately $600 million. With these funds, 17,000 peacekeepers used 100 aircraft to transport 3,500 tons of election materials while 1,500 troops from the European Union helped ensure calm. International organizations trained and supervised 12,000 paid observers, while Congolese civil society organizations contributed an additional 50,000 volunteer observers. 25.7 million Congolese citizens registered to vote for the first time and 70% of registered voters turned out to cast ballots on Election Day. The election process in 2006 was not perfect. In a country vastly inaccessible by road or rail, ballots and paperwork at times had to be carried by hand through the rainforest or in dugout canoes. As a result, over 1 million registered voters were unable to vote on Election Day. Candidates technically had only 4 weeks to campaign across a country the size of western Europe, prompting 19 of the 33 candidates to call for suspension. Etienne Tshisekedi, the most influential opposition leader, asked his supporters to boycott the elections. None of the candidates amassed a majority of the votes, requiring a run-off between the two leading candidates, Joseph Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba. Fighting between the rivals’ militias disrupted the capital city for months, even after Kabila was declared the winner. Although imperfect, Congo’s 2006 election season gave the wartorn eastern provinces a temporary reprieve from relentless violence, and international observers declared that Congo’s second democratic election in history was free and fair.
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Congo’s Independent Electoral Commission estimates that the upcoming Presidential, Parliamentary, Provincial and local elections will cost $712 million. The Congolese government will cover 60% of the costs ($360 million) and the European Union has pledged an additional $200 million. This leaves a large budget gap that has not yet been filled by the United States or other donors. Once appointed, a Special Envoy could build a global coalition among the G-20 nations to fully enable Congo’s third democratic elections in history. A Special Envoy could also pressure Congo’s government to enact electoral reform, which should include restoring the two-round voting process so that the 2011 elections proceed as they did in 2006. Six weeks ago, President Kabila’s political party pushed a constitutional amendment through Parliament in four days, eliminating the requirement that the winning candidate secure at least 51% of the national vote. (Supporters of the amendment cited the budget gaps discussed above.) As a result, a candidate who wins as little as 15% or 20% of the national vote could take office without facing a runoff. Although one round of voting would be less expensive than two rounds, announcing these results could lead to renewed violence in the capital city and the mineral-rich eastern provinces. Most post-conflict elections require more than one round of voting for the winner to secure an absolute majority. In Liberia’s first post-war election, for example, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won only 19% of the vote in the first round, but secured 80% in the runoff. Indeed, Congo’s current President, Joseph Kabila, came to power in the same way in 2006. With the appointment of a US Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region, President Obama has an opportunity to implement the strategy for peace in Congo he laid out in 2006. During this critical election year, an Envoy could build a global coalition of donors to fill existing budget gaps, persuade Congo’s government to enact electoral reform and exert continued pressure on belligerents and armed groups, ensuring free and fair elections this fall.
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President Joseph Kabila A married man of 39 and father of one daughter, Kabila spent most of his life in the military under the tutelage of his father. In the 1990’s he helped lead the Rwandan-backed campaign to topple Mobutu Sese Seko’s regime, leading a band of child soldiers, the Kadogos. Kabila has been at Congo’s helm since he took the place of his father in 2001. He speaks French and Swahili, and received broad public support in the 2006 election from the populous eastern provinces.
Etienne Tshisekedi A long time rival of Mobutu Sese Seko, and head of the largest opposition bloc in Congo, Tshisekedi has decided to spend his late 70’s running for President, after asking his supporters to boycott the 2006 elections. He is widely regarded as honest and principled, but is not fond of public speaking and currently leads a fractured opposition party. When he returned from medical treatment abroad in December, his supporters thronged the streets of Kinshasa.
Vital Kamerhe Kamerhe grew up in eastern Congo in a family of 10, fathered by a loyal follower of Patrice Lumumba. Kamerhe speaks all of Congo’s national languages, and made his political debut as a member of Tshisekede’s party during the 1980’s. His speeches against the Mobutu regime attracted the wrath of the ruling elite, forcing him into hiding for two years. After finishing an economics degree, he reemerged as a leader of Kabila’s party, orchestrating his successful 2006 presidential campaign. The former allies had a public falling out in 2009 over the president’s controversial military alliance with Rwanda. Now the 51-year old is campaigning for Kabila’s job.
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Alliance of Technology Companies & Civil Society Leaders In the lead up to Congo’s elections this fall, there is a critical need for 21st century tools to help civil society leaders coordinate and collaborate, and to help election monitors (both Congolese and international) communicate in real-time with peacekeepers. Historically, international observers, journalists and aid workers in Congo have gathered data for the sake of including it in a report that is published after the fact. This reality has created reporting fatigue among Congo’s citizens. A Kivu-based aid worker recently observed that: There exists literally tens of thousands of records that are personal accounts of what bad things have happened here. These files are stored and then accessed again when say, someone from the ICC visits at which point the people are interviewed again. And then the people are interviewed again when international media crews want some heartbreaking stories about Congo. So, the issue isn’t a lack of information. It’s there and it has been there for a very long time. The issue is a serious lack of action upon the information that’s given. Creating and distributing better communication tools to Congo’s grassroots leaders could fill the critical need for rapid response by peacekeepers and other branches of the security sector. With better technology, reports of election-related violence or intimidation could be addressed rapidly. Over time, implementation of rapid response could decrease the incentive for belligerent forces to interfere with elections and increase the incentive for civil society leaders to participate visibly in election monitoring without fear of retaliation for sharing information. A number of factors on the ground could facilitate rapid buy-in of new communication technologies. 18,000 peacekeepers are already on the ground and have experience with coordinating election logistics within Congo’s complicated geographic environment. Religious institutions, including the well-organized Catholic diocese network, are a trusted presence within Congo and have demonstrated their interest in and capacity for partnering with citizens to monitor (and house polling stations for) the election process this year. Among 70 million people, while only 1% of Congo’s population has access to the internet, at least 17% use mobile phones, and 2G coverage is high, even in rural areas. Most mobile phone users speak a common language - French Swahili, or Lingala - and use SMS as their most routine form of communication. Those who do not have phones listen constantly to the radio. A single United Nations-funded radio station, Radio Okapi, has relationships with nearly every Congolese radio operator and plays its programming throughout the country. In the last five years, democracy activists and civil society leaders in developing countries have made innovative uses of mobile telecommunications technology to organize mass protests, monitor elections and stop post-election violence.
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SMS: In Sierra Leone’s 2007 elections, a coalition of election observers used an SMS alert system to communicate with the National Election Commission, allowing police to receive reports of and remedy election problems in real-time. Crowdsourcing Data: In Kenya’s post-election period in 2008, a group of Kenyan software designers coded a mobile crowdsourcing application in a 48-hour hack session in Nairobi. The finished product, Ushahidi, aggregated reports of post-election violence along with direct feeds from news sites, blog posts, photos and videos in one place, on an interactive map. President Obama later credited Ushahidi with helping to stop the incidents they mapped. Since then, the Ushahidi platform has been applied to humanitarian crises and political events around the world, most recently by mapping the secession referendum in South Sudan and ongoing political violence in Libya. Social Networking: In 2009, Iran’s Green Revolution made heavy use of Twitter to attract international attention to government-sponsored violence against activists protesting rigged elections. When Twitter planned to shut down the site for 24 hours of routine maintenance in the middle of the protests, the US State Department made an unusual intervention, asking the company’s founders to keep the site live. Earlier this year, pro-democracy activists in Egypt used Facebook to organize successful mass protests against the Mubarak regime. As a matter of common wisdom, technological solutions to local problems are most constructive when they are deeply informed by the needs and wisdom of local people. This is a principle well understood by IDEO and has been integrated into their research and design methodology. During the next few months, Falling Whistles will partner with IDEO to send a team to Congo to carry out its trademark human-centered design research, developing deep empathy for Congolese voters, civil society leaders and election monitors. Together, we aim to identify and improve existing solutions while building new ones. We forsee the adoption of simple, useful, durable tools whose uses for Congolese people extend beyond Election Day. Finally, we seek partners to advise and assist us in the design, implementation and scaling process. Cognizant of the interdependence of 21st century economies and global security, we predict that in the long term, this alliance will benefit the global technology industry as much as it could benefit the people of Congo. As President Obama noted during his speech in Accra, “if people are lifted out of poverty and wealth is created in Africa, guess what? New markets will open up for our own goods.” It is unmistakably in our mutual interest to empower the Congolese people during this election year and beyond.
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It has been half a century since Congo’s Independence Day; half a century with only two democratic elections. Once again, the African continent is alive with cries for human liberty. Nations to the north are setting a precedent in the weathered footpath of 1960.
On November 27, 2011 Congolese citizens will cast their votes. Without intimidation, without corruption, the people of this nation must determine their own destiny. Join us as their Partners in Peace.
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Wr i ter s : M oni que Be adl e Se an D . Car as s o Kat e O ’ Connor M or r i s R es ear c h A s s i s tan ts : M at t We i s bar d Connor D uf f y Ke s he m a D av i ds on Ke v i n M ac hni k J as on Fi nde r M at t M e t z ne r D es i g n & L ayo u t: M ar i o Sal angs ang Pe t a J ohns t on