|
|
|
CIAO DATE: 06/06
Congo's Elections: Making or Breaking the Peace
April 27, 2006
Executive Summary
The approaching presidential and legislative elections will be the Congo's first multiparty polls since 1965. Although Mobutu Sese Seko held six national elections during his 32-year rule, these were within a one-party system and essentially symbolic, with voters mostly able only to approve or reject one list.1 The winners were inevitably party cadres with little accountability or interest in change. Mobutu won the presidency in 1970, 1977 and 1984 with over 99 per cent approval.
