Democratic Republic of Congo opens polls for long-delayed election

People in Congo have begun voting in a long-delayed presidential election that could bring the troubled country's first peaceful, democratic transfer of power.

DRC's 40 million registered voters are using voting machines for the first time amid opposition concerns that the results could be manipulated. (December 30, 2018)
Reuters

DRC's 40 million registered voters are using voting machines for the first time amid opposition concerns that the results could be manipulated. (December 30, 2018)

Voting in Democratic Republic of Congo's long-anticipated presidential election got off to a shaky start on Sunday due to torrential rain in the capital, long delays at some polling stations and broken-down machines. However, voting continued after official closing time for those who were in line.

Scores were seen waiting at one polling station in Kinshasa, the capital.

Three opposition strongholds saw no casting of ballots at all after the authorities cancelled the vote there, citing health risks from an ongoing Ebola outbreak and ethnic violence.

President Joseph Kabila, in power since his father's assassination in 2001, is due to step down after the vote in the first democratic transition for a country plagued by authoritarian rule, coups and civil wars since independence from Belgium in 1960.

Kabila voted early in the morning in the capital Kinshasa at the same school as the candidate he is backing, former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, whom the latest opinion polls showed trailing two opposition candidates.

"My only concern is that we have this very heavy rain and probably voter turnout might be low, but hopefully the skies will clear, and the voters will turn out in numbers," Kabila, wearing a dark blue suit, told reporters.

In the eastern city of Goma, where the weather was clear, a Reuters witness saw residents casting their votes, but another polling station in the city was still closed 90 minutes after polls opened at 6 a.m (0400 GMT).

"The majority of voters here are stressed," said Kayembe Mvita Dido, first in a line of dozens waiting at a polling station in the shadows of the towering Nyiragongo volcano.

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"Some do not even know how to use the voting machine," he said, referring to a new electronic voting system, criticised by the opposition as vulnerable to fraud.

Several machines broke down Kinshasa, Goma and Bukavu, bringing voting in those polling stations to a halt, witnesses said. Some voters complained they could not find their names on the rolls.

TRT World's John Joe Regan reports from Kinshasa.

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Peace pledge snubbed

On the eve of the vote, talks between key candidates to avert post-election violence broke down.

Opposition frontrunners Martin Fayulu and Felix Tshisekedi refused on Saturday to sign a proposed peace pledge, saying election officials had failed to make suggested changes to the text.

The announcement came after the pair had met with the Independent National Election Commission (CENI) as well as Kabila's preferred successor Shadary.

The UN, the United States and Europe have loudly appealed for the elections to be free, fair and peaceful – a call echoed on Wednesday by the presidents of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and the neighbouring Republic of Congo.

Byobe Malenga has more from Kinshasa. 

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Strong opposition?

Twenty-one candidates are contending the presidential elections, which is taking place simultaneously with ballots for the national legislature and municipal bodies.

The frontrunners include Kabila's champion Shadary, a hardline former interior minister facing EU sanctions for a crackdown on protesters.

His biggest rivals are Fayulu, until recently a little-known legislator and former oil executive, and Tshisekedi, head of a veteran opposition party, the UDPS.

If the elections are "free and fair," an opposition candidate will almost certainly win, according to Jason Stearns of the Congo Research Group, based at the Center on International Cooperation at New York University.

Opinion polls indicate Fayulu is the clear favourite, garnering around 44 percent of voting intentions, followed by 24 percent for Tshisekedi and 18 percent for Shadary, he said.

However, "the potential for violence is extremely high," Stearns warned.

Between 43 and 63 percent of respondents said they would not accept the results if Shadary is declared winner, he said.

And between 43 percent and 53 percent said they did not trust Congo's courts to settle any election dispute fairly.

However, Kabila said he was confident "everything will go well on Sunday".

"I want to reassure our people that measures have been taken with the government to guarantee the safety of all sides, candidates, voters and observers alike," he said in his end-of-year address broadcast Saturday evening on the RTNC state television.

Frail giant

Eighty times the size of its former colonial master Belgium, the DRC covers 2.3 million square kilometres (920,000 square miles) in the middle of Africa, behind only Algeria in area on the continent.

Gold, uranium, copper, cobalt and other riches are extracted from its soil, but little of that wealth comes down to the poor.

In the last 22 years, the country has twice been a battleground for wars drawing in armies from around central and southern Africa.

The legacy of that era endures today in the DRC's eastern border region, where ruthless militias have carried out hundreds of killings.

Insecurity and an ongoing Ebola epidemic in part of North Kivu province, and communal violence in Yumbi, in the southwest of the country, prompted the authorities to postpone the elections there until March.

Kabila said the vote would take place "as soon as the situation allows it".

Around 1.25 million people, out of a national electoral roll of 40 million, are affected.

No explanation has been offered as to whether or how the delayed vote will affect the official outcome, and legal experts say the postponement is unconstitutional.

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