Report

DRC elections: Voters disappointed not to have been able to vote in eastern Bunia

In Bunia, Ituri, in the north-east of the country, voting operations have ended. By midday on Thursday, December 21, most of the centres were in the process of completing the count, even in the Mudzipela district. Voters had hoped to be able to vote today, once calm had returned, but their hopes were dashed.

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[Illustrative Image] Bakoko polling station in Bunia, DRC, December 20, 2023. © RFI/Gaëlle Laleix

By: RFI Follow

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With our special correspondent in Bunia, Gaëlle Laleix

In Bunia, the neighbourhood of Mudzipela was rocked by violence yesterday by displaced people frustrated at not being able to vote. One polling centre was ransacked and three others were closed for much of the day, RFI reported.

In front of the local boys' school on Thursday morning, several dozen voters waited calmly. Since early this morning, Alfred has been waiting for his voting centre to open its doors: "I came here, I found the door blocked, there is no access inside, I don't know what's going on inside, but we suddenly found that the door is blocked. Yet, we were told that we would have access to it today. Well, as it is my duty, I feel uncomfortable.

Ruth, too, came at dawn. She is a displaced person from the territory of Djugu and feels left out in this election: "We, the displaced, did not vote. We were manipulated, we didn't have time to vote, which is why we're here, waiting, maybe we're going to vote, or not. I have been here since this morning, until now, we have not voted. We don't have joy because we didn't vote. It's important to vote because it's a right.

Even before the first results were announced, Richard made his case for a future protest: "We are disappointed, completely. Luckily, we come in the morning, the office is still closed. We have to take this to court, the voters did not vote, the results can be negative, we can already see that. We must demand, we must demand at the level of the CENI. The voters of Mudzipella represent several thousand votes.

Read alsoElections in the DRC: in Kinshasa, the painstaking work of agents in charge of counting and comparing the results

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• Ground floor
• Elections in the DRC