The European Union Electoral Observer Mission (MOE UE) gave a press conference this Friday November 17 2006 in Kinshasa where they gave their findings of the elements collected by its observers on the ground, and the figures compiled by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

MOE UE intends to bring some technical clarifications, in particular on the question of voting by derogation. On the other hand, it is not our task, before the verification by the Supreme Court of Justice, to come to a conclusion about the results.

Having noted the sometimes abusive use of the registers of derogation and those on the omitted lists all over the country, MOE UE greets the provision by made by the IEC of all elements, detailed by polling station, relative to the use which has been made of these lists.

This important effort of transparency has allowed MOE UE to proceed with precise checks of these elements, by comparing them with those collected by its observers at the time of the ballot and throughout the operations of compilation. 

Our finsings do not show a significant divergence in the compilation process. Our findings detail, from one polling station to the next, all these elements that made it possible to establish that those registered by derogation, in the majority of cases, have been used in proportions that go beyond those envisaged by the IEC.

In the majority of cases, however, the derogation registers which allowed people to vote outside of their office of inscription went according to the provisions of the law: essentially these were the staff of the polling stations, witnesses of political parties, national observers, women and older children of military on deployment.

However, the observers of MOE UE observed that the registers of derogation and the omitted lists had often been used in an undifferentiated manner: many electors normally authorised to vote on the special electoral register and the omitted lists of were erroneously put on the registers of derogation.

The use of the register of derogation nevertheless showed manifest abuses in a great number of polling stations, in particular in the provinces of Bandundu, Equateur, Katanga, Western Kasai, and South Kivu.

MOE UE has made an evaluation of the maximum repercussion of the results through the legitimate or non legitimate use of these lists. To do this, we calculated, by polling station, the maximum impact of their possible fraudulent use in favour of one or the other of the candidates.

We have also isolated all the polling stations with more than12 voters on the register of derogation. This gives us a minimum idea of the legitimate voters by derogation, by office. Deliberately selected with an aim of clarity, this hypothesis allows an evaluation- of the maximum repercussions on the national level of the use of these lists.

If, in an absurd case,the fraudulent use of the registers were in favour of the same candidate in all the polling stations of the country, this would not go beyond 650,000 votes in favour of one or the other candidate.

MOE UE pursues in addition its attentive evaluation of the compilation of the provincials elections until the complete end of the process.