This week Congo electoral commission began registering voters in North Kivu province, where a rebel insurgency has caused worries about the state’s ability to hold elections there in December.
Occupied by the M23 rebel group, a Tutsi-led militia that has been battling with the Congolese army for almost a year. And over 500,000 people fled their homes due to violence.
“We are confident that even these Congolese will have the right to register,” said Paul Mohindo, deputy rapporteur of Congo electoral commission, who traveled from Kinshasa to organize the start of registration on Thursday.
The country is due to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on Dec. 20th. Likewise voter registration began in December in other places and is expected to last another month.
Equipment and agents are already in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province. We will soon be sent out to other towns and displaced persons camps with nearly five million voters expected to register in the province.
Some people expressed their desire to vote in their home towns instead. For instance Odette Zaninga, who moved with her eight children into a displacement camp near Goma four months ago when they fled their home in Rugari village said: “The best thing for us would be for the government to take us back home and then register us”.
Negotiations are underway at the level of East African Community in order for M23 withdrawal from occupied areas.
However previous agreements on this have not been respected. Patrick Ngoyi national coordinator of Synergy of Citizen Election Observation Missions (SYMOCEL), one of the main civil society platforms observing elections in Congo said: “If registration is not done correctly then there will be an issue with presidential election’s universal nature. And as well as assembly’s seats distribution”.
