Less than two months away from presidential, legislative, and provincial elections, Congolese civil society and political actors have yet to build consensus on key technical aspects of the electoral process, such as the electronic voting machine and irregularities in the voter roll. In addition, the disqualification of two leading contenders, combined with security challenges in some provinces, further weakens Congolese’ confidence in what may well be the most important elections in the country’s history. Taking place just weeks before the official start of the campaign period, the following panel discussion will examine the essential benchmarks for credible elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as well as the potential consequences if these benchmarks are not met.
The National Endowment for Democracy and The Sentry
invite you to a discussion on
Elections in the Congo: Benchmarks for a Peaceful Transition
featuring
Sarah Gardiner, Investigative Analyst, The Sentry
Gérard Bisambu, Executive Secretary, Acting for Peaceful and Transparent Elections
Jean-Michel Mvondo, Executive Secretary, The Civic Education Network in Congo
moderated by
Rudy H. Massamba, Program Officer for Central Africa, National Endowment for Democracy
A light breakfast will be served
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
1025 F Street N.W., Suite 800, Washington, DC 20004
Speaker Biographies
Gérard Bisambu is the executive secretary of Acting for Transparent and Appeased Elections (AETA), DRC’s leading electoral platform of civil society organizations. An expert on issues of citizen participation and voter education, Gerard is also the Team Leader of the election thematic group within DRC’s civil society consultation framework. He is also a key member of the Coordinating Committee of the main consultation framework involving the independent national electoral commission (CENI) and civil society organizations.
Jean Michel Mvondo Kafundji is a Kinshasa-based lawyer and the executive secretary of the Civic Education Network in Congo (RECIC), a collective of 28 grassroots organizations devoted to civic and electoral education. In addition to being a local governance specialist, Mr. Mvondo is an accredited BRIDGE election expert.
Sarah Gardiner is an investigative analyst at The Sentry, focusing on grand corruption. The Sentry, an initiative of The Enough Project, is a team of policy analysts, regional experts, and financial forensic investigators that follows the money in order to create consequences for those funding and profiting from genocide or other mass atrocities in Africa, and to build leverage for peace.
Rudy Howard Massamba is a program officer at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), where he oversees grants programs for several countries of Central Africa, including Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
