Written question asked by Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party) on Tuesday, 31 January 2012, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 6 February 2012. It was answered by Stephen O'Brien (Conservative) on Monday, 6 February 2012 on behalf of the Department for International Development.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Elections

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will raise with the African Union the (a) conduct of the recent elections and (b) decision to delay indefinitely Provincial elections scheduled for March 2012 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Answer: The Secretary of State for International Development, my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell), did not have the opportunity to discuss the Democratic Republic of Congo elections during the AU summit, which was focused on other issues. He did not have the opportunity to have any bilateral meeting with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).We remain concerned about reports of irregularities during the electoral process and have repeatedly called for all allegations of fraud, election-related violence and intimidation to be investigated with the utmost seriousness. We await the final reports of international election observation missions, including the European Union and Carter Center missions.Provincial assembly elections are scheduled to take place in DRC in March. We expect that they will be delayed until later in the year because the DRC electoral commission (CENI) is currently focused on delivering the final results in the National Assembly elections, and because registration of provincial candidates has been postponed in the meantime. We will press for provincial elections to be held this year and will insist that any delay is used to learn lessons from the presidential and legislative elections and take corrective measures to ensure a more credible process going forward.

Secondary information