In all, 44 million voters are expected to vote on Wednesday in the DRC for a presidential, legislative, provincial and municipal elections. All this against a backdrop of political, economic and security tensions.
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This is a real challenge for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an African giant of 2,300,000 km2, or four times France. The organization of four polls, scheduled for Wednesday December 20, is a logistical headache for the authorities. The electoral commission is expected to equip more than 175,000 polling stations that it plans to open.
Clearly, this is a mission impossible. There should be missing ballots or voting booths. And given a degraded security situation, the inhabitants of certain provinces like North Kivu will not be able to vote, not to mention the millions of displaced people within the country. So many flaws that could call into question the transparency and honesty of electoral operations.
Outgoing President Félix Tshisékédi is favorite to remain head of the DRC. Firstly because he was able to mobilize a powerful electoral machine with a slogan summarized in three words: “Unity, Security and Prosperity”. And above all, the opposition has failed to unite and remains divided. Among President Tshisékédi’s rivals, three candidates stand out: the businessman Moïse Katumbi, Martin Fayulu, who claims that victory was stolen from him during the 2018 election, and Doctor Denis Mukwege, Nobel Prize winner. peace for his action in favor of raped women.
62% of the population lives on less than two dollars a day
Some observers fear violence when the results are announced. Because opponents fear fraud to ensure the re-election of Félix Tshisékédi, NGOs like Human Rights Watch are warning of violent incidents when the winner is declared. Even if the campaign took place in relative calm, hate speech took precedence over the candidates’ projects, all against a backdrop of endemic social crisis.
The DRC is a country endowed with exceptional mineral wealth, it holds, among other things, more than half of the world’s reserves of cobalt, a mineral essential for the manufacture of mobile phones and car batteries, as well as a unique hydroelectric potential in Africa. . However, the DRC cannot bring its population out of underdevelopment. Persistent conflict and slow economic progress have led to a decline in living standards year after year. In 2022, nearly 62% of Congolese, or around 60 million people, lived on less than two dollars a day, according to the World Bank.