A PRESIDENTIAL election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo due to take place on Sunday will be delayed by at least a week, the country’s electoral commission has announced.
The Independent National Electoral Commission said it was unable to organise the vote on time and the poll would now take place about seven days later than planned.
Candidates received a text message telling them the CENI president, Corneille Nangaa, had decided the commission was “technically unable” to hold the election as scheduled.
The delay will anger supporters of the DRC’s fractured opposition and dismay observers who hoped the election would bring a measure of security to the country. It is also likely to raise tensions and could prompt significant protests.
The DRC’s outgoing president, Joseph Kabila, refused to leave office at the end of his second term in 2016 and only reluctantly agreed not to stand this time round. The country’s constitution limits presidents to two consecutive terms.
Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, a former interior minister and Kabila loyalist, is standing for the ruling coalition instead.
Kabila has been in power since 2001 and the election would be the DRC’s first democratic transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.
Opposition candidates have warned any delay would be unacceptable.
“The CENI president said there will be an election, rain or shine, on 23 December,” said Martin Fayulu, one of the two leading opposition candidates. “We cannot accept a change of Mr Nangaa’s position today.”
Fayulu is part of an opposition coalition, which issued a statement on Wednesday saying authorities “had ample time to prepare credible and peaceful elections”.
“They have not done so … so we are discovering their real objective: remain in power to pillage the country and kill the Congolese population which deeply hopes for a change,” the coalition added.
There were reports of protests by students at the University of Kinshasa after news of the delay became known.
Preparations for the repeatedly postponed vote were disrupted by a fire last week that CENI said destroyed 80% of controversial new voting machines that were to be used in the capital, Kinshasa.
Many in the DRC believe the blaze was an attempt by authorities to smear the opposition and provide an excuse for a delay to the polls.
Local media reported CENI had cited three reasons for the delay: the deaths of more than 100 people in ethnic violence in the north-west this week, an outbreak of Ebola in the east and a shortfall in the number of ballot papers it had been able to distribute.
The DRC refused international assistance with the organisation of the election. This was despite the massive logistical challenge of a poll in a violent, unstable country the size of western Europe that has no proper road or rail system and a population of about 80 million people.
Campaigning has already been banned in Kinshasa because of concerns about violence.
Seven people have been killed by security forces during the campaign, while many more have been arrested.
The prosecutor of the international criminal court, Fatou Bensouda, said the risk of escalating violence could lead to the “commission of grave crimes”.
“In such a case, my office will not hesitate to take action … I wish to reiterate my appeal to the Congolese people, and more particularly to the authorities, political actors, their supporters and sympathisers, to do their utmost to prevent and avoid any conduct of criminal violence contrary to the Romestatute [pdf], anywhere and at any time. Violence is not an option,” she said.
— The Guardian