DR Congo faces logistical, security challenges before pivotal December poll

Some 44 million people are eligible to cast their ballots in the December 20 presidential contest – just under half the population of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest country. Voters will also be electing members of the national parliament and of regional assemblies in DRC’s 26 provinces, as well as local councillors.

Challenges abound in this sprawling nation with a land area of 2.3 million square kilometres, whose eastern provinces have been in the throes of grisly fighting between the army and rebel militia for more than two decades.

Election organisers are under pressure to avoid a repeat of the chaos that marred DRC’s last presidential contest in 2018, when logistical problems, delays and allegations of widespread fraud undermined the vote’s credibility. Despite the turmoil, the election ushered in the country’s first peaceful transition of power since independence, with former president Joseph Kabila handing power over to his successor Felix Tshisekedi, who is running for a second term on December 20.

With just over a month to go ahead of the high-stakes elections, FRANCE 24 takes stock of the forces at play and the many challenges ahead.

Advantage Tshisekedi?

Tshisekedi, 60, received his ruling party’s official endorsement on October 1 and is supported by a number of political heavyweights. They include cabinet ministers Vital Kamerhe, a former head of the National Assembly, and Jean-Pierre Bemba, the former vice-president who was convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Court and later acquitted.

The incumbent can tout a number of social reforms enacted during his first term, including the introduction of free education and maternity care. His critics, however, say he has failed to stem the plunder of DRC’s abundant mineral resources and to bring peace to the country’s war-torn east.

Tshisekedi faces a crowded field of 25 challengers vying for the top job, including Martin Fayulu, the 2018 runner-up who claimed he was robbed of victory five years ago. Other high-profile candidates include Moïse Katumbi, a prominent businessman and former governor of Katanga province, and gynaecologist Denis Mukwege, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize laureate renowned for his treatment of women raped by militiamen in eastern DRC.

With Tshisekedi seen as the frontrunner, several of his opponents have sent representatives to talks currently underway in South Africa on the prospect of fielding a single candidate in the first round of voting.

Logistical headache

Aside from the marquee race for the presidency, legislative elections at the national and provincial level are also scheduled for December 20. The electoral commission has validated almost 25,000 candidacies for the 500 seats in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, but the final lists are yet to be published.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (Céni) faces a major challenge delivering the voting material, most of which has been ordered from the Korean company Miru Systems.

“The manufacturing work has already been completed”, the commission’s chairman Denis Kadima told reporters on November 8, speaking from the company's offices in Seoul. He said the Céni was ready to dispatch the electronic voting devices and ballot papers to DRC, before distributing them throughout the country.

“I think we have enough resources and time to complete the job,” he said, though stressing that he did not mean to “minimise the challenge”. In 2018, a few weeks before the vote, some 8,000 voting machines were destroyed when a fire broke out at a Céni warehouse, resulting in the closure of more than 1,000 polling stations on election day.

Voter cards and electoral roll under scrutiny

A number of controversies have already marred the run-up to the election, particularly concerning the voter cards required to cast ballots, which are also used as ID. In addition to delays in delivery reported in some places, voters have warned of printing defects that render some cards unusable and have raised fears of fraud. The electoral commission has pledged to resolve the problem ahead of the vote.

Efforts to update the country’s electoral roll have stirred further controversy.

The Céni had initially commissioned the International Organisation of French-speaking countries (OIF) to supervise the process, but the latter pulled out, saying it been given insufficient time to do so. The Céni then turned to a group of five experts, whose work led to the removal of three million names – duplicates or belonging to people aged under 18, according to the commission – out of the 47 million initially on the roll.

Calls for an external audit of the updated roll, which opposition parties described as “fanciful”, have since been dismissed.

State funding for the election is another concern, with the head of the Céni acknowledging that it is yet to receive all of the 1.1 billion dollars earmarked for the vote’s organisation. At a meeting with presidential candidates on November 13, the commission said it had so far received 800 million dollars for the event.

Rebel violence, political tensions

Preparations for the election have been overshadowed by a flare-up in violence in the country’s troubled east. After months of relative calm, new clashes were reported in October between rebel groups in the territories of Masisi, Rutshuru and Nyiragongo, near the Rwandan border, causing the exodus of tens of thousands of civilians, according to the United Nations.

The upsurge in violence comes as Monusco, the UN’s peacekeeping mission in DRC, is poised to begin its “accelerated” withdrawal, as requested by Tshisekedi, after an almost 25-year presence in the country.

Speaking to FRANCE 24 on October 10, the government’s spokesperson Patrick Muyaya acknowledged that “conditions are not right for elections to be held throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo” due to the “occupation of part of North Kivu” province by members of the M23 rebel militia, which the UN and France have accused neighbouring Rwanda of supporting.

Just three days later, DRC’s president announced a “gradual easing” of emergency measures in North Kivu and nearby Ituri province. The “state of siege”, similar to a state of emergency, was declared in the two provinces in May 2021 but has largely failed to stem the violence there.

Meanwhile, the European Union and a number of NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, have warned of rising repression of certain opposition parties in DRC and restrictions on democratic expression in the country. Crackdowns on two protests in May have attracted particular scrutiny, as have the arrests of Katumbi’s right-hand man Salomon Kalonda and of journalist Stanis Bujakera Tshiamala. The latter was accused of “spreading false information” in an article published by the magazine Jeune Afrique, which he did not sign.

The government has rejected accusations of authoritarianism, arguing that it is working to ensure the safety of its citizens. It has also dismissed rumours of a possible postponement of the December 20 polls, stating that it is focused on ensuring that the elections take place on schedule.

This article is a translation of the original in French.