Goma – Voter registration ahead of year-end presidential elections got underway on Thursday in Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) troubled east, where armed groups control swathes of territory and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.
Electors in the North Kivu provincial capital of Goma lined up, some of them for hours, to obtain their voting card ahead of the December ballot, AFP reporters saw.
“The army and police have been mobilised to secure the electoral process,” the province’s military governor, Lieutenant-General Constant Ndima, told reporters.
“All displaced people will be registered according to their places of origin,” he said.
“The quality of the (voter) card is not good, but the important thing is to have been enrolled,” said Madeleine Matendo, a young resident of Goma as she exited a registration centre, six hours after starting to queue.
The vast central African country has a long history of political turbulence and disputed elections.
#RDC:Le gouverneur militaire du Nord-Kivu,Lieutenant général Ndima Constant a donné le go des opérations d’enrôlement des électeurs dans sa province à partir d #Goma.Les déplacés d guerres en provenance d #Rutshuru,#Masisi,#Nyiragongo et #Beni seront aussi enrôlés,a-t-il rassuré. pic.twitter.com/AxxO2IZST7
— Fidèle Kitsa T. (@fidele_kitsa) February 16, 2023
Its last presidential vote, in December 2018, saw the nation’s first peaceful handover of power, with the election of former opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi, although the results were bitterly contested by his rivals.
Since then, the country’s volatile east has been struggling with the rise of armed groups, including the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – which the Islamic State group describes as its regional affiliate – and the M23, which the government says is supported by neighbouring Rwanda.
Voter registration in western Democratic Republic of Congo began last December and was followed last month in the centre and southeast of the country.
The third and final phase comprises registration in seven other provinces, three of which – North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri – have been badly hit by armed groups.
Ndima said areas under the control of the M23, which holds large areas north and northwest of Goma, would undergo voter registration after they have been “liberated”.
‘Surprising enthusiasm’
Concern was running high in Ituri province, the scene of frequent attacks on civilians by militias and the ADF.
John Ilongo Tokole, delegate of the Independent National Electoral Commission (Ceni) in Bunia, capital of Ituri, said he was “surprised to see the enthusiasm” at the registration centres in the city, “in a region where every day there is talk of violence”.
“We will progressively go to the interior of the province, with the aim of registering everyone eligible,” he promised.
The electoral commission is also inviting citizens to renounce the widespread “money-laundering, corruption and disorder” that blights the country.
The registration process is scheduled to end in mid-March.
The December 20 presidential elections will take place in tandem with ballots for national legislators, provincial deputy and local councillors.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Twitter/@fidele_kitsa
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