Concerns About Voting Integrity Mar Long-Awaited DRC Elections

The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) incumbent president Joseph Kabila has remained in office since his father’s assassination in 2001. The largely unpopular president refused to step down when his constitutional term ended in 2016, infuriating many in the country, reports the New York Times. Groups such as the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), the primary Congolese opposition party, and the African Union successfully pressured Mr. Kabila to uphold term limits and step down. The international community, including the UN and the U.S. support these efforts. Mr. Kabila announced in August that he will not seek re-election. The December elections will mark the first democratic transfer of power in the DRC, per Africanews.

Candidates for the Presidency include the ruling party candidate Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, backed by Mr. Kabila, per VOA. According to September polls, his main rivals in the opposition party are its president Felix Tshisekedi, and Vital Kamerhe, who placed third in the 2011 election. There will be 21 candidates on the ballot in total, including other notable members of the opposition party. The quantity of candidates could split the opposition vote, boosting Shadary’s chances of winning and keeping the ruling party in power. In the country’s most recent election, which took place in 2011, Kabila won with 49 percent of the vote as the opposition party struggled to unite behind a single candidate, reported VOA.

The election, set to occur on December 23, will be conducted using electronic voting machines, according to a report by VOA. Opposition party leaders have expressed concerns that these machines will compromise the integrity of the vote. According to Al Jazeera, party leaders said that the machines are not secure and are at risk of being tampered with, skewing the results of the election. They are hoping for traditional paper ballots instead to conserve the integrity of the vote. This, in addition to the electoral commision excluding some opposition candidates has lead to opposition rallies in protest. One protester stated that the opposition is hopeful that this show of unity at the rallies and commitment to voting integrity will contribute to a victory at the polls and overall change for the country, as reported by Al Jazeera.

Africanews wrote that CENI, the election body for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, released a statement on October 29 saying that the government had contributed 150 trucks, nine planes and five helicopters for the distribution of voting machines, facilitating the electoral process across the country. Augustin Kabuya, spokesman for UDPS, said in Eyewitness Newsthat he is not confident that this will be enough transportation to reach the entire country, whose infrastructure is poor. The Democratic Republic of Congo is nearly two-thirds the size of Western Europe, covering 890,000 square miles, making it the largest sub-saharan African country by area.