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President Felix Tshisekedi is expected to seek re-election after
a first term marked by economic hardship and a resurge of rebel
activity in the east.
Almost 50 million people across the central African nation's 26
provinces are expected to register to vote over the next three
months.
The logistical challenges of holding an election in a such vast
country with limited resources were felt early on, however, as
registration opened in the first 10 provinces on Saturday
morning to long lines and undersupplied stations.
"There are no machines. They should have postponed instead of
setting a date and then doing nothing when people arrive," said
medical student Mike Tshamala, waiting with a dozen others at a
registration point in central Kinshasa.
Congo's electoral commission (CENI) rolled out a new cellphone
pre-registration system to speed up the process and prevent the
long queues that formed during past polls.
Iris scans have also been added to limit fraud.
But most registration stations in the capital Kinshasa failed to
open as scheduled due to lack of staff and material, Reuters
reporters observed. Citizens in other provinces made similar
observations.
An election observer who did not wish to be named told Reuters
only 6,900 out of over 11,000 kits needed for the first phase of
registration had arrived at the start of last week.
"It's like a car, you start... in first gear, you don't go
directly to third gear," CENI chairman Denis Kadima said after
signing up in Kinshasa on Saturday.
Tshisekedi, 59, also registered on Saturday in the northwest
city of Mbandaka, where an Ebola outbreak occurred earlier this
year.
Martin Fayulu, the second-place finisher in the last
presidential vote, has already announced his intention to run
against Tshisekedi again.
Opposition leader Moise Katumbi, the powerful ex-governor of
Congo's copper-producing Katanga province, will also run.
Congo's economy has been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic and
the Ukraine war since he was first elected in 2019, hiking
inflation and the cost of living in the mineral-rich country.
Insecurity has spiraled in Congo's volatile east since the M23
rebel group, which Congo accuses Rwanda of backing, staged a
major offensive in March this year.
(Reporting by Sonia Rolley and Benoit Nyemba; Additional
reporting by Justin Makangara; Editing by Sofia Christensen and
Nick Zieminski)
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