DRC news: CENI takes stock of voter identification and registration operations
The Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) took stock of the large-scale operations after the final closure of voter identification and enrollment operations throughout the national territory and in the 5 pilot countries. The figures communicated by Patricia Nseya, the rapporteur, show some major difficulties encountered during the operations, in particular cases of death.
A total of 31 deaths directly and indirectly linked to the Revision of the Electoral File were recorded. The situation is worrying, as the cases of death have affected temporary operational staff, applicants and police officers alike. The members of the registration centers are the most affected with 16 deaths in full operation, followed by the applicants with 7 cases, including 2 by bullets fired by the police.
However, the CENI wanted to emphasize that these cases of death are not related to the reliability of operations. The latter began on December 24, 2022 in 10 provinces of the first operational area and were definitively closed on Monday April 24 in operational area 3, thus marking the end of voter registration throughout the national territory and in the 5 pilot countries.
Unlike previous operations carried out in 2005-2006, 2010-2011 and 2016-2018, the CENI needed 122 days or 4 months to carry out these operations on the national territory and in the 5 countries mentioned. . This feat is to be saluted.
In the end, even if these operations encountered some major difficulties, they were necessary in order to organize reliable and credible elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo.