Electoral campaign in the DRC: creation of four major national observer missions
The election campaign is in full swing in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Different candidates are spreading across the country. For its part, the CENI is completing the final training of electoral agents and deploying its equipment to accommodate the 43 million registered voters. On the side of election observers, the final adjustments are also underway. At least three major national missions are being set up to monitor these elections.
The president of the CENI, Denis Kadima, on August 11, 2023. © RFI / Pascal Mulegwa
By: RFI Follow
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With our correspondent in Kinshasa, Patient Ligodi
As in 2018, the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church are uniting. Their electoral mission includes the deployment of about 25,000 observers with the aim of being present at all polling sites.
Despite the assurances given by the CENI, the two churches insist on a rigorous monitoring of the electoral process. Catholics even encourage citizens who have pledged to organize an "election watch" to support traditional observation missions. They are asking them not to leave the polling stations until the results are posted.
Churches will not be alone on the ground. Another election observation mission was set up last October. It is called "Citizen Perspective" and is made up of four civil society platforms: REGED, RENOSEC, RODHECIC and the Nothing Without Women platform.
This mission plans to deploy at least 22,000 observers, with the ambition of being present in each polling centre. Funded in particular by the European Union, this mission is technically supported by Democracy Reporting International, an NGO based in Berlin. It should be noted that the CENI plans to set up nearly 25,000 voting centres throughout the country.
There is also SYMOCEL, a group of 12 civil society organizations, which plans to deploy at least 000,8 observers, in addition to the 000,<> observers that the organization called New Civil Society plans to field.
If the issue of the 2018 elections was political change, this year's will be "more transparency," an official of the Catholic-Protestant election observation mission told RFI.
Read alsoGeneral elections in the DRC: kick-off of a campaign with multiple issues
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