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DR Congo

DR CONGO: REVISION OF VOTER REGISTRATION LISTS BEGINS IN BAS-CONGO

Congolese citizens who reach the voting age (18) by June 30, 2011 and refugees who have returned to the country will have three months to subscribe in the new voter registration lists said the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) on the day in which the revision of the lists begins from the province of Bas-Congo in view of the general elections of 2011. Once they are completed in the South western province, the revision of voter registration operations will resume in another province. "We reiterate that obtaining the voter cards is totally free, Citizens who have lost their document will have to present themselves with a police report or one from their county of residence," said CENI sources. The previous elections, held in 2006, the first after the end of the war, were also marked by the boycott of the Union for Development and Progress Party (UDPS), which denounced irregularities and a non-democratic climate. Meanwhile, the Congolese National Assembly has launched a law about the new composition of the Electoral Commission that will count four representatives from the majority, three from the opposition while the delegates of so called civil society have been excluded. This decision is raising the ire of "civil society" in the DR Congo: in a declaration read in parliament it is reiterated that "the essential role had in the last years by representatives of the population in the affirmation of peace and in the democratization process", noting the risk of "corruption, conflict of interest and partiality tied to an overly politicized CENI".[AB]