Kit Shortages Mar Early Voter Registration In DR Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) began voter registration over the weekend as the country prepared for the December 2023 general election.

After a first term marred by economic hardship and a resurgence of rebel action in the east, President Felix Tshisekedi is poised to run for re-election.

Over the next three months, about 50 million people are anticipated to register to vote across the vast Central African nation’s 26 regions.

However, registration began in the first ten provinces on Saturday morning, resulting in long lineups and undersupplied locations.

“There are no machines. They should have postponed instead of setting a date and then doing nothing when people arrive,” said medical student Mike Tshamala, waiting with a dozen others at a registration point in central Kinshasa.

The electoral commission (CENI) implemented a new mobile phone pre-registration technology to expedite the procedure and avoid the huge lines that have formed in previous elections. To combat fraud, iris scans have also been introduced.

However, most registration stations in Kinshasa’s capital failed to open on time due to a lack of employees and materials, according to Reuters reporters. Similar observations were recorded by residents in other provinces.

According to an anonymous election observer, only 6,900 of the more than 11,000 kits required for the first phase of registration arrived at the beginning of last week.

“It’s like a car, you start … in first gear, you don’t go directly to third gear,” CENI Chairman Denis Kadima said after signing up in Kinshasa on Saturday.

Tshisekedi, 59, also registered on Saturday in the northwest city of Mbandaka, where an Ebola outbreak occurred earlier this year.

Martin Fayulu, the runner-up in the last presidential vote, has already announced his intention to run against Tshisekedi again. Opposition leader Moise Katumbi, the powerful ex-governor of the copper-producing Katanga province, will also run.

DRC’s economy has been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war since he was first elected in 2019, hiking inflation and the cost of living in the mineral-rich country.

Insecurity has spiralled in the DRC’s volatile east since the M23 rebel group, which authorities accuse neighbouring Rwanda of backing, staged a major offensive in March this year. Kigali continues to deny involvement, despite contrary statements from United Nations expert.

(Reuters)