UDPS supporters help launch the election campaign period on October 28 in Kinshasa. General elections for president and parliamentary representatives will be held on November 28. (photo AFP)Late Thursday afternoon I was repairing the back road (long since turned into a dirt trail) that runs down to the Kwilu River canoe crossing, when the sound of a laboring two-stroke engine echoed from the forest down by the beach. I stood at the side of the trail, shirt soaked with sweat, boots covered with dirt, waiting to see what was coming. A couple of minutes later a motorcycle chugged up the hill in a blue cloud of 2T oil smoke. It labored under the weight of two young men and their loaded backpack. Campaign stickers for a woman running for parliament covered every possible surface on the motorcycle (except the headlight.)
As the driver tried to negotiate the soft dirt of the newly regraded road, the engine died. The driver smiled at me and kicked the starter a couple of times. The engine sputtered and died. Finally, the passenger dismounted and the driver restarted the motor and pulled up out of the soft dirt. The campaign worker got back on and they took off, leaving only a weaving tire track in the deepening shadows of approaching evening. The campaign passed but the road still needed repairing. I went back to work.
Campaign fever is upon us. The official campaign period for president and parliamentary candidates opened on October 28. Candidates and their supporters are criss-crossing the territory passing out campaign goodies and holding occasional rallies. Promises, promises, promises. But the second exercise in electoral democracy will have a more discriminating voter. Many people think about the facile promises of the incumbents and say, "Yes, but what did you DO to make our lives better?" Now people will gladly accept the campaign t-shirt or cap, but they want someone who will work for better schools, passable roads, improved jobs, and less interfering petty officials.
But how does one know who is the right candidate in a milieu without newspapers, with almost no universal access to news or even advertisements. Three hundred and eighty-five candidates are jostling for six seats for Bulungu territory in the national parliament. Literally hundreds have visions only of a fat salary and a house in Kinshasa. But who are the six best, the six who can and will work for real change in the prospects of their constituents.
In morning prayers the staff and workers of ACDI have been praying for discernment, the wisdom to distinguish between the good, the less good and the gawdawful. They have been praying for the election officials: that they hold on to integrity amidst all the pressures and temptations. For the election preparations -- that everything may be accomplished in time. For God to quench the flames of hate that some candidates are trying to fan into an inferno of success. For peace. For a group of people and a single leader capable of rebuilding a functioning government that creates the conditions that encourage the creativity and productivity of its people.
For many young partisans the campaign is an adventure or a party. Riding around on a motorcycle, handing out flyers, crossing rivers in a dugout canoe. The real challenge, however, is cultivating the imagination -- having the conviction that fixing things is possible and knowing how to pull people together to cobble the fixes together. Eventually successful candidates have get off their motorcycles and start working on roads. God grant us the wisdom to know which candidates can do that -- and who want to.
