by Shi Yu and Alain Uyakani
KINSHASA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Balloting is continuing Wednesday across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as voters elect a new president, members of the national and provincial legislatures, and municipal councilors, with delays in deployment of voting materials and reports of sporadic violence at some polling stations.
Some 44 million people were registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) to vote.
SLOW POLLING PROCESS
Voters were supposed to cast their ballots from 6 a.m. till 5 p.m., but in Kinshasa, the capital city, some polling stations suffered from logistic problems to keep the electoral process going.
"We have suspended polling here for several hours now because the voting machine batteries are all dead. We are looking for other ways to see how to operate these machines," one CENI agent, who requested anonymity, told Xinhua at one of the polling stations in an outlying district of Kinshasa.
In addition to malfunctioning voting machines, several polling stations also face a shortage of ballot papers and voting booths. Some voters found that their names were not on the list.
At one polling station in downtown Kinshasa, where most of the diplomatic and administrative institutions are located, scuffles broke out between the police and supporters of some presidential candidates, following the dysfunction of voting machines.
According to the observation mission of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) and the Church of Christ in Congo (ECC), 31.37 percent of polling stations did not open on time across the country.
"TOTAL CHAOS"
Several presidential candidates of the opposition publicly contested the ongoing electoral process.
"It's total chaos. There's no organization," said one presidential candidate, Martin Fayulu, leaving the polling station after casting his ballots.
CENI President Denis Kadima said on Wednesday that the polling could be prolonged, admitting challenges of logistics.
"All the polling stations which open late will recover the lost time," he said. "We can even go the next day, Thursday. The principle is that no Congolese should be left aside,"
Fayulu said that many polling stations did not get voting equipment and materials "until the middle of the day."
"If there are polling stations where people do not vote, we will not accept these elections," he said.
Denis Mukwege, another presidential contender, also denounced the dysfunction of the polling stations, saying that the CENI should be held responsible.
"If we find that these irregularities are huge, we are not going to accept that the population is placed in a position" of not being able to elect its leaders, Mukwege said at a polling station in Kinshasa.
In Bunia, the capital of the eastern province of Ituri, several electoral kits were destroyed Wednesday morning by war-displaced people angry at not being able to vote.
Several parts of the eastern DRC, still occupied by rebels, are excluded from holding these elections due to a lack of voter registration.
Twenty-six candidates have been registered by the CENI to compete in the presidential elections, including the outgoing President Felix Tshisekedi, who is seeking reelection.
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 2018 presidential election, 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. ■