The general elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) scheduled for December 2023 are the focus of all attention. The Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) has announced that these elections will take place on the scheduled date, despite protests and boycotts from certain political parties.
The CENI also published a provisional list of candidates for the national deputy, with more than 24,802 candidates, including more than 5,500 women. However, the commission temporarily excluded certain political parties which did not reach the threshold of admissibility of 60%, ie those which do not have at least 300 candidates on the whole of the national territory.
Among the political parties which have succeeded in fulfilling this condition, we find Jean-Pierre Bemba’s Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC), the Alliance of Christian Democrats of Congo (ALDEC) of Princess Adèle Kahinda, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS-Tshisekedi), Ensemble pour la République by Moïse Katumbi and Leadership and Governance for Development (LGD) by former Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo.
The CENI calls on candidates for national deputies to check whether their party or political grouping is indeed on the list of candidates selected before deploying any political action.
Some political parties, such as the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) of former President Joseph Kabila and Engagement for Citizenship and Development (Ecidé) of Martin Fayulu, have decided to boycott the ongoing electoral process, accusing him of numerous irregularities.
Despite tensions and disputes, the general elections in the DRC remain scheduled for December 2023. The coming weeks will be crucial for the announcement of the final lists of candidates and for the organization of the electoral process in a climate of transparency and democracy. The DRC is thus preparing for a decisive moment in its political history