Supporters of President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and leader of the Union of Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) party, Felix Tshisekedi, look on in front of the Congolese Republican Guard at a campaign rally at Sainte Therese in the Ndjili district of Kinshasa on Dec 18, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)

KINSHASA - Nearly 44 million voters will go to the polls Wednesday in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Africa's second-largest country by land area, amid a tense security context.

The general elections are scheduled on Dec 20, when citizens of the DRC will cast their votes for a new president as well as members of national and provincial legislatures.

According to the official electoral calendar, provisional results are expected on Dec 31, and the president-elect will be sworn in on Jan 20 next year

Twenty-six candidates for the presidential elections have been registered by the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI), the electoral body, including the outgoing President Felix Tshisekedi who is competing for his reelection.

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Moise Katumbi, former governor of Katanga province, Denis Mukwege, the winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for his work with rape survivors, as well as Martin Fayulu, who still considers himself the legitimate winner of the presidential election of 2018, are the main challengers facing Tshisekedi.

The electoral law of the DRC stipulates that the candidate who garners the most votes in the first round will become the next president outright, with a five-year term, renewable once only.

According to the official electoral calendar, provisional results are expected on Dec 31, and the president-elect will be sworn in on Jan 20 next year.

Logistics problems

Despite many uncertainties regarding logistical challenges, the CENI on Monday reassured during a conference that elections would be held Wednesday as scheduled.

On Dec 17, the government announced that it had reached an agreement with Egypt to support the deployment of electoral materials, in addition to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the DRC, which had agreed to deploy the materials on a limited basis in several provinces.

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Briefing ambassadors at the UN Security Council recently, Bintou Keita, UN secretary-general's special representative in the DRC, noted steady progress in the electoral process despite significant logistical, financial, and security challenges.

A man throws stones at passing cars in Kipushi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on Dec 18, 2023, following Ensemble pour la Republique's (Together for the Republic) presidential candidate Moise Katumbi's final campaign rally ahead of the upcoming elections. (PHOTO / AFP)

The restive North Kivu province also witnessed a further deterioration in the security situation, with rising regional tensions between the DRC and Rwanda, which increases the risk of direct military confrontation that could involve Burundi

In a letter dated Dec 12, the Kinshasa government asked the UN Security Council to allow the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, commonly known as MONUSCO, to extend its logistical support to other provinces, though Kinshasa has been calling for a swift withdrawal of UN blue helmets.

Persistent insecurity

The elections will take place in the context of the ongoing conflict in the eastern part of the country, a crisis characterized by the resumption of fighting between the rebels of the March 23 Movement (M23) and the government military.

Several regions in the eastern part of the DRC, still occupied by the rebels, are excluded from holding these elections due to a lack of voter registration.

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Last week in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, the CENI officially announced the exclusion of nearly 1 million people from the elections, including mostly the displaced who are currently scattered in the shelters around Goma.

According to Keita, the resurgence of the crises related to the rebel group of the M23 in the east and new pockets of insecurity in the Greater Katanga region, Mai-Ndombe, and Tshopo provinces heightened concerns.

Tshisekedi and leading opposition candidates, including Martin Fayulu, Moise Katumbi, and Dennis Mukwege, have all campaigned in the east, promising a respite from the violence.

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The restive North Kivu province also witnessed a further deterioration in the security situation, with rising regional tensions between the DRC and Rwanda, which increases the risk of direct military confrontation that could involve Burundi.

The DRC has the largest number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) on the African continent. Years of violence and insecurity have driven 5.7 million people from their homes, and in Ituri and North Kivu provinces, violence has increased recently, including against civilians living in displacement sites, according to the UN.