Launching the DRC Citizens Coalition for Electoral Democracy a Project hosted by NDSCI North Kivu
Launching the Democratic Republic of Congo Citizens Coalition for Electoral Democracy known as “COCIDE”
People in Goma using different ways in order to express themselves on various issues touching their lives, a demonstration of Pro-Democracy Pressure Groups in Goma demanding the access to water to every person in the city.
COCIDE is a Project of three organizations mainly COJESKI North Kivu, APEDH, and the New Dynamic of the Civil Society (NDSCI) in North Kivu, and it will be implemented under the Umbrella of NDSCI North Kivu. COCIDE is managed by a Secretariat spearheaded by the Executive Director and will focus on popular participation in democratic elections in DRC.
The three organizations came together on Friday September 6th, 2024 and officially announced the creation of COCIDE after 10 months of intense work. COCIDE seeks the promotion of popular democracy as the only means to assume power at all levels and in various sectors of the society in the Democratic Republic of Congo, this will include the promotion of democracy within: Organizations, Associations, Community Based Organizations, Communities, Groups, Civil Societies, Syndicates, local government levels, government and other institutions where leaders should be based on elections. COCIDE seeks also to promote popular participation in decision making in order to change the current power structure which is based on up to bottom and make it from bottom to the top, in this way CICIDE will also promote people at the community levels to get better organized and promote better leadership at each level.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is facing so many challenges related to Democracy, elections, good governance and leadership among others. The notion of Democracy is not clearly understood by many people and every day we have observed the reduction of democratic spaces at all levels in the society.
Therefore we believe COCIDE has come at the right moment in order to address the challenges and contribute towards democratic principles as the sole channel for people to access power and manage power and still to engage people to subscribe to democratic principles as only way to participate in the affairs of the country at all levels.
The end goal of the COCIDE is to reduce chances for people to resort to violence and wars as ways to claim power, reduce conflicts and promote quality leadership based on ideas, this will also reduce ethnic and tribal tensions, reduce marginalization by offering everyone the chance to present his/her convictions and last propel the country to real development.
