This paper analyses the role of the ethnic factor in political choices in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and its impact on democratisation and the implementation of the practice of good governance. This is done by focusing especially on the presidential and legislative elections of 1960 and 2006. The Congolese electorate is known for its ambiguous and paradoxical behaviour. At all times, ethnicity seems to play a determining role in the * Hubert Kabungulu Ngoy-Kangoy is a research fellow

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... at the Centre for Management of Peace, Defence and Security at the University of Kinshasa, where he is a Ph.D. candidate in Conflict Resolution. The key areas of his research are good governance, human security and conflict prevention and resolution in the SADC and Great Lakes regions. He has written a number of articles and publications, including La transition démocratique au Zaïre Finally, political identification can be expressed in political, linguistic, economic or regional ways. The very subjective character of the vote has a negative impact on the political choices, and consequently on good governance, which then shows up, as often is the case, as incompetence and corruption. The study ends with some recommendations that may eventually contribute to voting for the sake of the advantages of democracy and the exigencies of good governance.