Running the Democratic Republic of Congo is a tough and dangerous job. For decades, this African country the size of Western Europe has lurched between dictatorships, wars and vast humanitarian crises. Despite extraordinary natural resources, it remains desperately poor. Two leaders have been killed.Even so, about 20 candidates are in the race to become Congo’s next president in national elections, the fourth in Congo’s history, on Wednesday. Another 100,000 people are running for seats in national, regional and local assemblies.The vote will be closely watched by Congo’s nine neighbors, but also by foreign powers. International interest in Congo has soared in recent years as a result of efforts to stem climate change: Congo has the world’s second-largest rainforest, as well as deep stores of the rare minerals needed to make electric cars and solar panels.A frantic cacophony filled the capital, Kinshasa, this week as rival campaigners coursed through the broken streets in a last-minute drive to gather votes. Music blared. Lines of motorbikes splashed through puddles. Bombast flowed, as did money.“We are the victory before the victory,” declared Rovernick Kola, 29, a motorbike rider waiting for his $20 payment for driving around in a convoy waving posters of a parliamentary candidate.On Wednesday, voting got off to a shaky start in the capital, Kinshasa, where many polling stations opened over two hours late, increasing fears that a disorderly process could affect the credibility of the result. Election observers also reported heated arguments and scuffles between voters and electoral officials at polling stations with long lines or incomplete voting lists.
The most famous candidate is Denis Mukwege, a gynecologist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his work with sexual assault victims. But the firm favorite is the incumbent, President Felix Tshisekedi.A voter poll published Tuesday by Ebuteli, a Congolese political research organization, and the Congo Research Group, based at New York University, gave Mr. Tshisekedi 49 percent support. His nearest rival, Moïse Katumbi, a former governor of the mineral-rich Katanga province, got 28 percent. Mr. Mukwege got less than 1 percent.Behind the festive scenes, though, there are fears that the election could bring new turmoil to a country that can ill afford it.Candidates have stoked ethnic tensions with inflammatory language. At least one person has died in violent clashes between rival groups, Human Rights Watch said. Incomplete election preparations have fueled fears of potential rigging. Official results could take as long as 10 days.
Organizing an election in such a vast country would tax any bureaucracy — never mind in the world’s fifth-poorest country, with a population of about 100 million people, and some of Africa’s worst infrastructure.To reach all of Congo’s 75,000 polling stations, the authorities have sent Korean-made voting machines by boat on the Congo River, by plane across vast distances and by foot into some of the world’s most impenetrable forests — a journey that can take three weeks, election observers say.Ballots for Congo’s 44 million registered voters have been flown in from China. But the enduring conflict in eastern Congo means at least 1.5 million people will not be able to vote.
The entire effort is costing $1.2 billion, the national election commission says. Even so, it failed to complete preparations on time: Western officials expect that Wednesday’s vote is likely to be extended into Thursday or even Friday in places.
Even where voting goes ahead on time, the cards that residents must show to vote are a major problem. In Congo’s hot, humid climate, the ink on many cards issued earlier this year has rubbed off in recent weeks. One survey of Kinshasa residents found that 73 percent of their cards were illegible — a potential recipe for chaos at the polls on Wednesday.Electoral observers worry any turmoil could facilitate cheating.“The government has created a system that allows numbers to be manipulated,” said the Rev. Rigobert Minani, the head of a Catholic organization that is deploying 15,000 poll watchers across Congo. “There’s a big potential for fraud.”
Promising to tackle corruption and empower the press, Mr. Tshisekedi was seen as a breath of fresh air when he came to power in 2019, despite a highly contentious election.Although many Congolese believed that another candidate had won the most votes in the December 2018 vote, Mr. Tshisekedi struck a power-sharing deal with the outgoing president, Joseph Kabila, that brought him to power.The United States blessed that arrangement, which some saw as the best way to end Mr. Kabila’s 18 years of erratic and often harsh rule.
A gold tooth is the last remaining trace of Patrice Lumumba, Congo’s first prime minister, who was assassinated in 1961 after barely a year in office.Belgium returned the tooth to Congo last year after it was retrieved from the home of a former colonial officer who had disposed of Mr. Lumumba’s body after other Belgians executed the prime minister. Now it sits in a coffin at a monument on a busy Kinshasa traffic junction.Invoking Mr. Lumumba is an article of faith for many candidates. To many Congolese, his fate embodies a tragic history shaped by foreign powers that have been enriched by Congo’s minerals, or have used it as a geostrategic battleground.