There is an African proverb which says that if you adopt a name, you must also inherit its affairs. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, recent post-electoral events have led people to question the very essence of democratic culture in the country, and to wonder whether the polity has failed to embrace the virtues of the country's name.
Elections which took place on 28 November 2011 were noted by the EU observer mission as having "serious deficiencies" and warned that the bloc would "re-evaluate its support come the next stages in the Congo's democratic process". The US Carter Centre, which sent observers to the elections, said that the vote was "too flawed to be credible." The Congolese Catholic Church, which had deployed the largest observer mission to the elections (30,000 people) said that the stated results "did not confirm the truth". Meanwhile France's ministry of foreign affairs has "deplored and criticized" the irregularities, as well as the "reported violence". However, instead of calling for an annulment of the results - even though France acknowledged that the irregularities "marred" the vote - it has favoured dialogue and called for lessons to be learned. The same is true of the US. Whilst the Obama administration has been critical of the electoral process, it has not called for an annulment. In a country where civil society (both at home and abroad) is charged and frustrated, these denouncements amount to very little when the status quo is allowed to just continue and smack of self-serving interests.
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