Southern Africa is looking ahead to a busy second half of 2006 with presidential and general elections lined up in three countries, with more focus on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) polls.

Analysts here said the key issues in the national elections that take place in DRC, Madagascar and Zambia center on the standards for the consolidation of democracy set by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) electoral guidelines, and on the challenges of gender equity.

The SADC Principles and Guidelines governing democratic elections were adopted by the Summit of the Heads of State and Government in August 2004 at Grand Baie, Mauritius. The guidelines have since been tested in countries such as Mauritius, United Republic of Tanzania and Zimbabwe that had elections in 2005.

Consolidation of democracy
 
In DRC, Joseph Kabila is leading a transitional government that was put together via a 2003 peace agreement signed in South Africa initially planned to end in June last year but parliament extended its mandate to allow for more time to prepare for elections. The Independent Electoral Commission has enrolled over 20 million eligible voters from a total population of 60 million.

The analysts said democracy took a historic step forward when President Kabila promulgated a new electoral law in May that set the initial date of elections for June 18 but were postponed to July 30 following a request from the electoral commission for more time to prepare for the exercise. This will be the first democratic election coming after more than 40 years since independence from Belgium in 1960, they said.

Madagascar will hold its presidential elections on December 3 after the High Court accepted a proposal by the government to have the polls a few weeks earlier than planned.

The government said it wished to hold elections earlier to avoid disruption due to bad weather and sought the court's position on whether the adjustment to the date would violate the constitution. Zambia is also expected to hold elections later this year. President Levy Mwanawasa is facing a stiff challenge from two opposition alliances and another party, the Patriotic Front in the presidential elections expected towards year-end.

Preliminary campaigns have been dominated by the constitutional debate with demands that the first-past-the-post system of electing the president be scrapped from the constitution to ensure that a president is elected via a 50-percent-plus-one vote majority system. The government has formulated a new electoral law that also provides for transparent ballot boxes.

Angola is also fast-tracking preparations for its first post- war elections, which will consolidate current gains from economic and political stability and set the country firmly on a path to sustainable peace and economic growth, but the elections are unlikely to take place this year as government is still registering voters and preparing for all the necessary logistics.

Featuring gender equity
 
The countries' national elections will also face a challenging issue of gender equity that has been witnessed in the last decade throughout the region.

As the region moves to correct gender imbalances, especially in areas of decision making, more and more women are encouraged to vie for positions as political leaders.

In DRC, five women have already paid the nomination fee pegged at US$50,000 to challenge President Joseph Kabila in the forthcoming polls.

The women who will contest presidency are Florentine Bonza Mokanda of the Convention of the Christian Democrats (CCD), Justine Kasavubu M'poyo who heads the Democrats Movement and Marie- Therese N'landu who will contest on the Party for Peace in Congo (CONGO Pa) ticket.

The other female candidates are Wiviene N'landu of the Union for Defence of the Republic (UDR) and Catherine Marthe wa Mbombo Nzuzi of the Popular Movement of the Revolution (PMR).

In Zambia, the Forum for Democracy and Development, headed by female opposition leader Edith Nawakwi, formed the alliance with the United National Independence Party (UNIP) and the United Party for National Development, which will field one presidential candidate. Nawakwi served as a cabinet minister under immediate past president, Fredrick Chiluba.

(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2006)