ON the eve of elections in the vast and impoverished Democratic Republic of Congo, voters of all stripes voiced hopes on Tuesday that the poll would be well-organised and conducted without violence.
Forty-four million people are registered to vote in the concurrent presidential, parliamentary, provincial and municipal elections on Wednesday in the central African nation.
“Tomorrow will be calm, it’s when the results come in that there could be problems,” said Flory Tshimanga, a 32-year-old seller of mobile phone credits, in the capital, Kinshasa.
“I’m not saying who I’m going to vote for, because I don’t want to get beaten up,” he added.
After a month of rallies and tense political rhetoric, the official election campaign drew to a close on Monday night.
President Felix Tshisekedi, 60, is running for a second five-year term.
Most observers agree that he has a healthy chance of winning the first-past-the-post presidential vote, given that the opposition is divided.
Logistical problems remain a major worry ahead of the vote, with concerns that voting materials won’t reach polling stations on time.
An unidentified number of voter cards are also illegible, due to poor printing, raising further questions.
