After several delays, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) held its first major democratic election since 2011 on the 30th of December, 2018. As expected, most roads leading to the elections were tainted by controversy and the election itself was not without its own share of drama.
Over 46 million Congolese citizens registered with the country’s electoral commission to elect a replacement for President Kabila, who has been in power for over 17 years. The major front runners for the election are Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary (Kabila’s chosen successor), Martin Fayulu and son of former opposition leader, Felix Tshisekedi.
Following violent protests, loss of voting equipment in a suspected case of arson and several killings, the elections kicked off Sunday morning and saw a relatively positive turnout despite poor weather.
However, tensions have risen due to the country’s decision to cut off SMS and Internet services during the election period, with some stakeholders claiming that the decision creates an avenue for election fraud and tampering of results.
Opposition activists claimed that the absence of internet and SMS access was orchestrated to prevent the results from being contested as they cannot properly monitor it, making it easy for the results to be imposed on the people.
Media access was also curbed with the signal to Radio France International (RFI), one of the major radio broadcasting services in the country, being cut off. Government also withdrew the press passes belonging to the station’s main correspondents on Monday, over allegations of broadcasting results from the opposition.
Speaking on the suspensions through a statement supported by the United Kingdom and France, the United States of America and the European Union, called on the Congolese government to restore the country’s internet and text line.
Defending its decision, the Congolese government (through Barnabe Kikaya Bin Karubi, Senior Special Adviser to Kabila) announced that the decision was made with the people in mind and the cut, which began on Monday the 31st, will last till the 6th when the results are expected. He also noted that the country is already being plagued by fictitious results being used to cause discord by the opposition party.
Although January 6th was set as the election results announcement day, according to CENI the country’s election umpire, a pushback seems imminent as new reports from the commission reveal that only 17% of the votes casted have been received for collation with over 80% yet to be communicated from their points of voting.
The commission’s president, Cornielle Nangaa said: “We are working around the clock. We are doing our best to publish the results on January 6. But if we can’t, we can’t.’’
If the delay occurs, does that mean that the country will be denied internet for a longer duration?
This move by the Congolese government aimed at “calming and protecting” its people, only appears to be aggravating the situation and creating a deeper level of mistrust between the people in power, the opposition, the international community and, most importantly, the people.
As stated by the opposition, this seems like a calculated move to reduce surveillance and monitoring during the elections, which will probably cause even more violence when the results are eventually announced.
All sides of the election from Shadary to Fayulu and Tshisekedi have, at some point following Sunday’s poll, claimed victory ahead of the election results.
