Thursday, September 14, 2006

Good news, bad news

The good news is that Bemba and Kabila finally met face to face yesterday. We had our share of VIPs visiting Kinshasa over the past week – Thabo Mbeki, Javier Solana and, um, Hilary Benn – and I guess international diplomacy won the day. Top of the agenda for the presidential candidates’ meeting: the diplomats’ proposal that all soldiers, except those helping the UN peacekeepers in the east but including Bemba’s personal army and Kabila’s Republican Guard, be confined to their barracks.

The bad news, potentially, is that the Supreme Court of Justice declared the fixing of the second round of the presidential election for 29 October unconstitutional (“inconstitutionnelles les décisions de la CEI, en ce qu’elle fixe le délai du deuxième tour de l’élection présidentielle au 29 octobre 2006” – Le Potentiel). I refer you to a previous post, where I summarised the problem: The Constitution says fifteen days after the official results are announced, but this is logistically impossible (only 45% of the 60,000 electoral kits have been deployed since August). Unless of course the Supreme Court holds off announcing the official results until 15 October, but that, I would think, is politically impossible. So. Now we wait with baited breath to see how the Supreme Court proposes to solve the dilemma.

With our usual flair for timing, we’re off again, for a couple of weeks. More weddings, friends, family, theatre, music, shopping, dinners, coffee, newspapers and the likes. Cheeky, but welcome nonetheless.

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