Some Election Results

Although complete results are not yet officially available, the constitutional referendum has apparently passed. Nationally the results seem to be overwhelming (anywhere between 2-to-1 and 4-to-1), and turnout was pretty high. There are two places where it appears that the “No” votes exceeded the “Yes’s”--in the Kasai region (where Tshisekedi has a strong following) and in Kinshasa. In these areas, turnout was especially low, with opposition leaders arguing that abstentions should be counted as “no” votes. One of my students, who lives in the cité told me that at his polling place, which had registered 5,000 voters, less than 400 people came out on the first day. The opposition in Kinshasa seems to be driven by frustration with the current government and the extensive corruption that we see every day. Plus, as I mentioned before, the electoral commission did a terrible job of distributing the proposed constitution and educating people as to its content. Many people voted “No” or abstained for this reason.

In the eastern portion of the country, which suffered terribly from the 1998-2003 war when 3 million people were killed, the turnout was high and it was nearly unanimous in support. People there, like a lot of other places in the country, are eager to see things move forward. Nobody is naïve in DRC (other perhaps than me). They have accepted an unknown constitution as the best available option for peace and stability.

The referendum ballot had two options, “yes” or “no,” which is identical to the ballot that was used during Mobutu’s one-party elections in the early 1970s. You voted either “yes” or “no” on the ruling party. Then as now, most people who voted voted yes. A friend recounted a job interview he had with Pan-Am Airways, which had an office here, around the time of elections in the early 1970s. Students were known as the base of the radical opposition to Mobutu, who was strongly supported by the US at this time. The interviewer, an American, knowing that he was interviewing a UniKin student, asked him how he voted. He replied honestly, that he voted “no.” Then he explained, perhaps somewhat disingenuously, that the students’ “no” votes would actually enhance the legitimacy of the Mobutu regime and the electoral process by preventing him from receiving 100% of the vote. He got the job, and Mobutu’s party won that year with 98% of the vote.