UN offers logistical support for DR Congo's December polls

Several members of the UN Security Council, including Britain, France and the Netherlands, today said that the UN was ready to offer logistical aid for presidential elections this December in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has rejected all offers of support.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said many questions remained about the country's electronic voting infrastructure.

"Will there be enough voting machines, or will authorities extend voting by days or even weeks? Can the authorities recharge voting machines with only a 12-hour battery life? Have election organizers widely tested the machines?" Haley asked.

"Will voters, many of whom have never used a touchscreen, know how to use them? Are organizers preparing paper ballots as a back up if the electronic voting machines fail?" added Haley, who has previously voiced unease about the unprecedented use of electronic voting machines in the DRC.

The DRC has declined offers of advice, oversight and funding to help organise the election in the impoverished country nearly five times the size of France.

"It does not insult the DRC's sovereignty for [the electoral committee] to accept logistical support from MONUSCO," the UN stabilizing mission in the country, Haley said.

"Instead, the DRC is wasting precious resources to buy capabilities that are already available to them," she said.

"The Congolese authorities should permit MONUSCO to provide logistics and transportation support," she said.

The DRC's ambassador to the UN, Ignace Gata Mavita, came to the defense of his country's electoral committee, known as CENI.

"The results achieved so far by CENI should allow us to trust in the institution and allow it to carry out its mission without interference in its work based on considerations which owe more to speculation than reality," he said.

He said the DRC "remains open to contributions by other partners, provided that these are made without conditions and with respect to its sovereignty."
"Respect for the electoral timetable is indispensible," said Anne Gueguen, the French deputy ambassador to the world body, who said that MONUSCO stood ready to "provide logistical support" to aid "free, credible, transparent and inclusive elections."