DR Congo’s President Tshisekedi holds last rally ahead of Dec. 20 vote

The DR Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi held his last political rally on Sunday ahead of Wednesday polls in a bid to retain his seat as the leader of the central African country.

Just like all the other candidates, Tshisekedi has made similar promises like more jobs, an end to conflict in the east and more infrastructure.

The election campaign has taken place in relative calm, a feat in a country whose first peaceful transition of power since independence in 1960 occurred in 2018.

Human Rights Watch, nonetheless, warned over the weekend that election-related violence risked undermining the vote.

Some 44 million registered voters are set to cast ballots in the vast central African nation of about 100 million people on December 20 in presidential, parliamentary, provincial and municipal polls.

About 100,000 people are standing in the four votes, with President Felix Tshisekedi seeking another term after winning a disputed election in 2018.

The sheer size of the DRC, which is roughly the size of continental Western Europe, means staging elections is a logistical nightmare.

The country is also one of the world’s poorest and has little high-quality infrastructure, with the CENI electoral commission still struggling to distribute voting material to more than 175,000 polling booths.

Additional sources • AFP

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