A chaotic polling day in Kinshasa

Posted by: 12/20/2023 – 11:33 pmChanged: 12/20/2023 – 11:36 pm

3 minutes

From our special correspondent in Kinshasa,

” Give me the floor, I have so much to say! » Fabrice, 39 years old, mason and musician, is one of the residents of Kinshasa, who are most frustrated by the Congolese general elections and want to express their anger this December 20. ” It was a bad election! Bad election », the person who did not find his name in the voter’s list tells the journalists.

Read more[À revivre] Elections in DRC: Voting continues Thursday for offices that cannot be opened

In another center of the capital, Gabriel, 30, sighs. Come dawn, this bank agent laments: “ The Cheney [Commission nationale électorale indépendante, NDLR] He promised that the election would start at 6 am. This is a lack of seriousness on his part. Generally, these elections have to be postponed due to lack of logistical facilities. They do what we urge them to do. »

For weeks, the question of whether these presidential, legislative, provincial and regional municipal elections would be postponed has been raised amid controversy. Security in Eastern DRC, The logistical challenge In a country four times the size of France, finances are scarce. But Patricio, 48, shouldn’t have this debate. ” A true Congolese cannot say anything wrong about CongoHe gets irritated. There are many foreigners who speak ill of the Congo and who criticize it here and there and want to sabotage this election. When there is nothing! Everything is kept in order “. This stylist promises: ” For me, everything worked fine for polling. There were some problems when we arrived in the morning. But now everything is sorted and can be done without any problem. »

” If we were in the first election, it would be normal »

This Wednesday, many offices in Kinshasa did not open their doors at the scheduled time from 6am to 5pm. The fault, often, is that voting machines are unavailable or not ready to work. A situation in this regard, Céni recognized ” Delays in starting polling operations have spread across the entire territory in some offices “. she promised ” All voters who wish to do so will vote » and late opening offices will operate for 11 hours. As for the offices that did not open their doors this Wednesday, Cheney’s boss, Denis Kadima, assured them that they would do so on December 21.

Arguments unlikely to silence the 33-year-old Espoir. Arriving at his check-in at 6 a.m., the businessman sighs: ” I have had enough. I thought I would go home. I am tired. Imagine you waited six hours without eating. You say to yourself that you have to do your duty as citizens, then this happens … If this is our first election, this will be normal. But this is already the fourth and we must be experts. However, every election we end up with the same nonsense. »

For its part, the Ministry of Communications has mitigated the difficulties of the day. If he Condemns observed acts of vandalism […] and listed throughout the national territory “, Govt. ” He generally congratulated the Congolese people who had mobilized to participate in the elections which were held well in the entire national territory. “.

An enthusiasm not shared by many opposition leaders, including Denis Mukwege. In a press release, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner said: The ongoing election is deeply alarmed by the spate of serious malpractices and irregularities “.

Read moreElections in DRC: Congolese call to vote for crucial vote for country