After repeated delays, the run-up to the presidential and parliamentary vote turned violent in the capital at the weekend. Final rallies were cancelled due to clashes between rival supporters, security forces opened fire on crowds and the main presidential challenger was prevented from campaigning.
The poll – which will pit President Joseph Kabila against 10 rivals while about 18,500 candidates will compete for 500 seats in parliament – will test the vast, central African nation’s progress towards stability after decades of misrule and two wars in the past 10 years.
Last evening, trucks ferried ballot boxes and papers across the sprawling capital, Kinshasa, as convoys of heavily-armed police patrolled the rubbish-strewn streets.
Across the nation, observers said election officials were scrambling to get equipment to remote polling stations.
The last conflict in the mineral-rich state officially ended in 2003 but the country remains plagued by pockets of instability and many people have yet to taste the dividends of eight years of relative peace.
In parts of the east, the vote will take place in areas still controlled by a plethora of local and foreign rebel groups.
Election commission chief Daniel Ngoy Mulunda said yesterday that the country would prove critics of the process wrong by holding credible and peaceful elections.
