26 July 2017•Update: 26 July 2017
By Godfrey Olukya
ARU, Democratic Republic of Congo
Months after Democratic Republic of Congo's president complained there were too few registered voters to hold elections, officials say they now have a record number on the books, upping the pressure to hold delayed polls before year’s-end.
“Thirty-five million people have already enlisted since the beginning of the operation of the identification of voters. The figure is significantly higher than the 25.7 million enrolled in 2005 and 31 million in 2011,” said the nation’s Independent National Electoral Commission in a statement on Wednesday.
Robert Nsanga, a member of the opposition coalition, told Anadolu Agency that now there is a sign that elections might finally take place.
“This time there will be no excuse for President [Joseph] Kabila to not organize the elections, because by December most voters will have been registered.”
Although elections were supposed to be held at the end of last year, Kabila, whose term was set to end last December, said elections could not be held because most eligible voters had not yet been registered.
Kabila’s action led to demonstrations in which over 40 people died. A Catholic Church-brokered agreement between the opposition and government on Dec. 31 said voters would be registered in the runup to elections before year’s-end.
Democratic Republic of Congo has a population of about 82.4 million, with some 45 million eligible voters.
