interim statement
EISA Observer Mission 2006 Presidential second round and Provincial elections elections

Kinshasa, Tuesday, 31 October 2006

EISA has pleasure in releasing its interim statement on its deployment of a 50 member regional observation mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) 2006 elections. EISA was invited by the Commission Electorale Indépendante (CEI) to observe the Presidential second round and Provincial elections and has successfully concluded its short term observation.

The mission has made an assessment of the poll and its preliminary findings and recommendations are presented in this interim statement. Our observations and views regarding the electoral process in the DRC are based on the guidelines enshrined in the Principles for Election Management, Monitoring and Observation in the SADC Region (PEMMO. EISA will produce a more comprehensive final report on the entire election process, giving more in-depth analysis and recommendations in the coming weeks.

EISA will continue to follow the process through to its completion, including the official announcement of the results by the CEI, so as to evaluate the overall post-election phase. The EISA mission comprises:

  • short term observers who will be in the country for the period immediately following the poll and
  • medium term observers who will leave the DRC upon the release of provisional results by the IEC.

This interim statement covers the period up to voting day.

The mission takes this opportunity to extend its gratitude to the people of the DRC and to the CEI for their warm welcome and hospitality. The team was generally allowed unhindered and unrestricted access to key offices dealing with elections, polling stations, polling centres and counting stations, as well as access to both the national and local results compilation centres.

1 Composition of the Mission

The EISA regional observer mission is led by Advocate Yusuf Aboobaker, Chairperson of the Electoral Supervisory Commission of Mauritius. Mr Aboobaker also led the EISA regional observer missions to the December 2005 Referendum and the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in July 2006. The current mission comprises 50 members, including representatives from electoral commissions, civil society organisations, academic institutions and political parties from Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, the Netherlands, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

1.2 Method of work
EISA deployed 50 observers, 25 of whom are short term and 25 are medium term observers. The short term observers will depart from Kinshasa on 1 November 2006, while the 25 medium term observers are scheduled to leave the country by 22 November 2006. EISA has increased the size of its mission and extended the observation period to ensure that observers remain in the country to observe the counting and compilation process. The extended stay will also allow EISA delegates to observe the crucial announcement of the provisional results.

1.3 Deployment and observation of the voting process
EISA deployed 19 observer teams on 25 October 2006 covering all the provinces as follows:

  • One team in Bas-Congo
  • One team in Bandundu
  • One team in Equateur
  • One team in Kasai Occidental
  • Two teams in Kasai Oriental
  • Two teams in Katanga
  • Four teams in Kinshasa
  • Two teams in Maniema
  • One team in Province Orientale
  • Two teams in North Kivu
  • Two teams South Kivu

On Election Day, EISA teams visited a total of 187 polling centres, and 360 polling stations and observed the voting and counting of ballot papers at polling stations.

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