With just 9 days left to the December 23rd presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a fire has reportedly destroyed over 8,000 voting machines in the country’s capital of Kinshasha, according to the nation’s electoral body.
The country’s National Election Commission (CENI) reported that the fire broke out in the early hours of Thursday morning, in an electoral commission building which housed a large quantity of the election materials to be used for the December polls.
This fire comes after several violent clashes between the police and opposition party supporters, where dozens were killed in protests demanding for the incumbent president, Joseph Kabila, to step down. The most recent of these clashes resulted in the death of three people after an altercation with the police while the opposition candidate, Martin Fayulu, was campaigning in the town of Kalemie.
Speaking on the incident, the DRC’s electoral commission chief, Cornielle Nangaa, noted that the 8,000 machines destroyed in the fire were among the 10,000 to be deployed for the elections on the 23rd. Describing the fire as a major setback, Nangaa explained that efforts were being poured into ensuring that the elections go through as planned with spare voting machines being retrieved from other parts of the country to replace those lost in the fire.
The December polls mark the first time an orderly transfer of power is anticipated in the country as Kabila steps down, following his 17-year tenure as president. Concerns were raised by several leaders of opposition parties in the DRC, especially Fayulu, who alleges that the machines could aid vote rigging and the manipulation of the result in favour of Kabila’s preferred candidate, the former Interior Minister, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary.
Kabila took over the helm of affairs in the country after the assassination of his father, Laurent Kabila, and maintained power over the nation with his second term ending in 2016, officially. Following the expiration of his term, Kabila refused to step down attempting to extend his tenure by changing the constitution and pushing back elections until international pressure resulted in the December 23rd date set for the elections.
Details of the fire are still emerging as its main cause is yet to be ascertained.
