This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

141617Z Feb 06

FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3148
INFO RWANDA COLLECTIVE
SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
CIA WASHDC
DIA WASHDC
HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK

C O N F I D E N T I A L  KINSHASA 000247 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/14/2016 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM KPKO CG ELECTIONS
SUBJECT: UDPS MOVES TOWARDS ELECTIONS KICKING AND SCREAMING 
 
 
Classified By: PolOff CBrown, reasons 1.4 b/d. 
 
¶1. (C) Summary: In a series of meetings, Union for Democracy 
and Social Progress (UDPS) officials said the long-time 
opposition party will participate in the upcoming national 
DRC elections and is planning to hold a national congress in 
February. These same officials, however, complained bitterly 
about perceived unfairness in the current transition process 
and about their exclusion from key governmental institutions. 
UDPS officials also continued their call for reopening voter 
registration centers to enroll UDPS supporters who they claim 
boycotted the process. End summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
Some Party Officials Bow To The System - Reluctantly 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶2. (C) PolOff met February 1 with UDPS spokesman 
Jean-Baptiste Bomanza to discuss the UDPS's possible 
participation in the DRC's elections. Bomanza began the 
meeting by recounting the UDPS's history as the opposition to 
former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. He charged (comment: 
erroneously) that his party had been "unfairly" excluded from 
the negotiations setting up the current transitional 
government and was being kept out of the political process by 
those now in power, particularly the PPRD (the party of 
President Joseph Kabila). PolOff reminded Bomanza that it was 
the decision of the UDPS and its leader, Etienne Tshisekedi, 
to decline ministerial and parliamentary seats offered to it 
at the beginning of the transition and to boycott the voter 
registration process during 2005. Bomanza countered with the 
frequent UDPS refrain that the entire transitional 
government, as well as the electoral process, was being 
manipulated and corrupted by other political groups, and 
therefore the UDPS wanted no part of what it views as an 
illegitimate system. 
 
¶3. (C) Asked what it would take for the UDPS to participate 
in elections, Bomanza repeated the standard demand, i.e., 
the Independent Electoral Commission should reopen voter 
registration centers so that those who had boycotted the 
process (on the orders of Tshisekedi) could now register. 
PolOff explained that the CEI had already decided that it 
would not restart the registration process because doing so 
would jeopardize the entire electoral calendar. Bomanza 
protested that CEI President Abbe Apollinaire Malu Malu was 
simply doing the bidding of the PPRD and the decision was 
meant to exclude the UDPS from elections. (Comment: Aside 
from the legitimate timing and logistics issues posed by the 
UDPS demand to reopen registration, current registration 
numbers indicate very high rates in the party's strongholds 
in the Kasais, indicating that party followers disregarded 
Tshisekedi's boycott call pretty much en masse. Moreover, any 
 
SIPDIS 
party officials who did not register to vote and wish to run 
for office will be registered by the Independent Electoral 
Commission at the same time they sign up as candidates. End 
Comment.) 
 
¶4. (C) Bomanza ultimately admitted, however, that the UDPS 
will take part in elections despite what it sees as an 
institutional bias, but will continue to demand that the CEI 
reopen registration as the party did not believe claims that 
doing so would delay elections. Bomanza also said Tshisekedi 
would be the party's presidential candidate, and that the 
party would hold a national party congress in Kinshasa, most 
likely in February. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Someone Must Be Responsible, But Not Us 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) On February 2, PolOff met with UDPS National Committee 
President Valentin Mubake, who made many of the same claims 
of corruption and unfairness against the transitional 
government. Mubake said the current government should not be 
allowed to organize elections because it had not achieved the 
main objectives of the 2003 Sun City Accords (which 
established the transition), notably to provide security 
throughout the country. Mubake said current unrest in the 
Kivus was evidence that the transitional government had not 
accomplished the goal of establishing peace in the DRC. 
 
¶6. (C) Mubake criticized the International Committee to 
Accompany the Transition (CIAT) for "breaking its promises" 
to the UDPS. Mubake (comment: incorrectly) argued that the 
CIAT had agreed to reopen voter registration after the 
constitutional referendum in December, and later reversed its 
decision. Mubake said it was clear the international 
community is working against the party by calling on it to 
 
participate in elections without providing the same 
opportunities as all other Congolese political parties. 
 
¶7. (C) Mubake later claimed the electoral process was flawed 
because of how electoral districts will be demarcated and how 
seats in the National Assembly will be assigned. Mubake 
presented two prior censuses -- which he claimed were 
conducted by a Belgian professor and the Ministry of Interior 
-- demonstrating that population figures in the two Kasais 
(which are UDPS strongholds) were much higher than what 
official registration figures from the CEI showed. Mubake 
argued that the CEI figures were fabricated and therefore 
would disadvantage the UDPS in areas where it would win the 
majority of votes. 
 
¶8. (C) Mubake said the UDPS will participate in national 
elections, but the options being presented to it by the 
international community were problematic. Mubake said the 
UDPS was left with two stark choices: boycott the election 
process in its entirety, or participate in elections under 
current conditions. Mubake said the UDPS wants to find an 
option between these two "extremes"; that is, a "political" 
alternative which provides the UDPS with representation in 
the transitional government and which mandates the reopening 
of voter registration -- both of which have been previously 
rejected. While reiterating the UDPS's decision to take part 
in elections, Mubake at the same time warned that if the 
party determines the process is "flawed" or "inequitable," 
the UDPS may decide to withdraw entirely. 
 
------------------ 
Presenting Excuses 
------------------ 
 
¶9. (C) UDPS Secretary General Remy Masamba, the self-declared 
leader of the party's "pragmatists," took a more reasoned 
approach.  Declaring that the UDPS is prepared to accept the 
CEI's decision regarding registration, Masamba told PolCouns 
January 30 that Tshisekedi has instructed him to prepare both 
a party conference and his presidential campaign.  Masamba 
said he is concerned that Tshisekedi's poor health will 
effectively keep him from campaigning, which might, he 
speculated, be one reason that Tshisekedi has remained 
adamant about not taking part in the process. Having a 
presidential candidate who only makes pronouncements from his 
house in Limite (Kinshasa) would be almost worse than no 
presidential candidate at all, Masamba said, but admitted 
that he doesn't believe the party will nominate anyone other 
than Tshisekedi Masamba said that, aside from health, 
Tshisekedi might be reluctant to campaign actively because 
 
SIPDIS 
the UDPS does not have genuine widespread representation in 
all eleven provinces, and arriving in a provincial capital to 
a lackluster reception would be unacceptable to Tshisekedi. 
 
¶10. (C) Finally, Masamba pointed to financial constraints 
which are limiting his ability to organize a conference, much 
less conduct a campaign. He noted regretfully that if only 
the UDPS had taken part in the transition it would have been 
able to accumulate resources which could now be used for 
campaign purposes. Nonetheless, he said he would do his best 
to organize a conference in February, since this needs to 
take place before registration of presidential candidates 
begins (which could be as early as the end of this month or 
the first week of March, once the electoral law is adopted). 
When PolCouns asked if Masamba really believed that 
Tshisekedi would go to the CEI offices to register as a 
 
SIPDIS 
candidate, he glanced around, lowered his voice, and said 
that he did not believe that Tshisekedi would "demean" 
himself by doing so -- after all, Masamba added, Kabila 
probably won't go in person so why should Tshisekedi?  In 
response, PolCouns reminded Masamba that unlike Tshisekedi, 
Kabila is president of the country, and already registered to 
vote besides, which means that he doesn't need to obtain 
voter identification which can only be issued at the CEI 
office.  Looking startled, Masamba agreed. 
 
--------------------- 
Comment: Stage Is Set 
--------------------- 
 
¶11. (C) If the UDPS takes part in elections and Tshisekedi 
loses, the party will claim that the elections were not free 
and fair, and will contest the results.  If the party doesn't 
take part in elections, it will claim the same thing.  Either 
way, we anticipate problems -- possibly even some violence -- 
from the UDPS before and after elections. 
MEECE 
 
 
NNNN