Peace Process and Elections
The Second Congo War ended in 2003 with an agreement that created a transitional government leading to elections. Ruberwa become one of four vice-presidents and the main RCD faction held 94 out of 500 seats in the National Assembly.
The general elections in 2006 saw Ruberwa come fourth in the presidential vote, with only 1.7% of the vote. However the RCD gained 15 seats in the new 500-seat Assembly. In the 19 January 2007 Senate elections, the party won 7 out of 108 seats.
Nyamwisi's RCD-K-ML renamed itself the Forces for Renewal.
In 2007 Belgian IPIS researchers examined military structures and mining links in Katanga. They found that Nyunzu was one of the territories that was occupied by the RCD during the two Congo wars. Under RCD rule, here were 2 military zones in Katanga. The first comprised Kalemie, Moba and Manono and fell under the control of the Kalemie brigade. Kongolo, Kabalo and Nyunzu formed the second and were occupied by the Kongolo brigade. When the Kalemie and Kongolo brigades left for ‘brassage’, the RCD structures were abandoned and all the Katangese territories fell under the command of the regional headquarters in Lubumbashi.
Read more about this topic: Rally For Congolese Democracy
Famous quotes containing the words peace, process and/or elections:
“Ye gentle souls, who dream of rural ease,
Whom the smooth stream and smoother sonnet please;
Go! if the peaceful cot your praises share,
Go, look within, and ask if peace be there:
If peace be his—that drooping weary sire,
Of theirs, that offspring round their feeble fire,
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—George Crabbe (1754–1832)
“The moralist and the revolutionary are constantly undermining one another. Marx exploded a hundred tons of dynamite beneath the moralist position, and we are still living in the echo of that tremendous crash. But already, somewhere or other, the sappers are at work and fresh dynamite is being tamped in place to blow Marx at the moon. Then Marx, or somebody like him, will come back with yet more dynamite, and so the process continues, to an end we cannot foresee.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)
“Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)