KINSHASA, DR Congo
Polling stations opened Wednesday in a high-stakes Democratic Republic of Congo general election pitting the incumbent President Felix Tshisekedi against a fragmented opposition, as much of the east of the country is mired in conflict.
Polling stations opened at 6
am (0400 GMT) and will close at 5 pm local time.
AFP journalists saw the first
voter casting his ballot at a polling station in the eastern city of Kisangani,
which sits in a region an hour ahead of the rest of the huge country, which
straddles two time zones.
Voters still waiting in line
at 5 pm will be given tokens and polling booths will stay open until they cast
their votes, an official at the electoral commission told AFP.
The government declared a bank
holiday for Wednesday, and as during previous elections, it closed the borders
and suspended domestic flights.
Around 44 million Congolese,
in a nation of 100 million, are registered to choose their president as well as
lawmakers in national and provincial assemblies, and local councillors.
In a first, Congolese citizens
residing in South Africa, Belgium, the United States and France will also cast
ballots.
More than 100,000 candidates
are running for various positions, and while counting is set to begin as soon
as polling stations close, results are not expected to be announced for several
days.
Several observation missions
will be watching the voting process, with the largest one run by a union of
Catholic and Protestant churches mobilising 25,000 election observers.
Leaders of this influential
mission promised Tuesday to conduct a "parallel count" for the
presidential election.
Tshisekedi, 60, faces 18
challengers.
The incumbent, who took office
in 2019 and is running for a second five-year term, is considered the
front-runner to win in the single-round presidential vote.
Tshisekedi's record, as he
himself has acknowledged, is mixed. He has presided over years of economic
growth but little job creation and soaring inflation. He is asking for another
term to "consolidate his gains".
Throughout the campaign, he
also poured scorn on what he termed "foreign candidates" --
suggesting that his opponents have dual loyalties and lack the will to stand up
to Rwanda, which the DRC accuses of funding rebel groups on its soil.
Moise Katumbi, a 58-year-old
businessman and former governor of mineral-rich Katanga province, is the main
target of such attacks.
Armed conflict in eastern DRC
overshadowed much of the electoral campaign. Militias have plagued the troubled
region for decades, a legacy of regional wars that flared in the 1990s and
2000s.
Tensions have resumed since
the M23 group, which is allegedly backed by Rwanda, began capturing swathes of
territory in late 2021.
Clashes with M23 fighters have
subsided in recent weeks but the rebels continue to hold sway over large parts
of North Kivu province. Citizens living in those areas will not be able to
vote.
Other presidential candidates
include Martin Fayulu, a 67-year-old former oil executive who says he was the
true winner of the 2018 election that brought Tshisekedi to power.
Surgical gynaecologist Denis
Mukwege, 68, who won the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for his work helping rape
victims, is also running.
All the major opposition
candidates say they suspect the government of preparing electoral fraud.
Flory Tshimanga, a 32-year-old
seller of mobile phone credits in Kinshasa, said he thought the vote would
proceed without hiccups.
"It's when the results
come in that there could be problems," he said.
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