The DRC awaits the results of elections

By Badylon Kawanda Bakiman

The population of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), estimated at over 100 million, is impatiently awaiting the results of the presidential, legislative and local elections that have just taken place in this elephantine country of 26 provinces.

Nearly 44 million voters were called to the polls. The incumbent president, Félix Tshisekedi, ran for a second five-year term in the face of a virtually divided opposition.

In the end, a total of 19 candidates, including just one woman, were in the running for the presidential election. But on the ballot papers presented to voters, there were still 26. Rallies during the campaign arrived after the ballots had been printed.

A total of 75,400 polling stations were set up throughout the country, but in three territories, two in North Kivu (east of the country) and one in Maï-Ndombé (south-west), it was not possible to vote due to insecurity. Electoral commission teams were unable to register voters.

Scheduled for Wednesday December 20, 2023, these elections continued until Thursday 21 following several problems encountered. Delays in the deployment of materials in several polling stations; voting machines that the Electoral Commission called "Electronic Voting Device" (DEV) broke down or did not work at the start of operations; late start-up of voting; illiteracy among many voters, etc.

In Masimanimba, one of the territories of Kwilu province, more than 300 kilometers from the capital Kinshasa, and a vehicle belonging to a national deputy candidate of the Union sacrée de la nation was seized on Wednesday December 20, 2023. The vehicle contained several voting machines and empty ballot papers.

In anger, the population burned the ballot papers and voting machines found in the vehicle.

Several voices were raised to denounce the "chaotic elections". For example, Ferdinand Kambere, deputy permanent secretary of former president Joseph Kabila's Parti du peuple pour la reconstruction et la démocratie (PPRD), demanded the resignation of the current chairman of the CENI.

"Kadima no longer has the right to proclaim the results. The fact that he himself has extended the voting day beyond the 20th, all that is expected of him is to resign. And this resignation calls on the nation to recover to see how the new elections can be organized", he declared.

5 presidential candidates demand reorganization of elections

In a joint declaration published on Wednesday December 20, five of the nineteen presidential candidates demand the reorganization of general elections in the DRC. They are Floribert Anzuluni, Nkema Lilo, Théodore Ngoyi, Denis Mukwege and Martin Fayulu.

According to the document, the general elections scheduled for December 20, 2023 should not be continued until Thursday, December 21, 2023. The signatories maintain that it is constitutionally and legally impossible for the Independent National Electoral Commission to take such a decision.