Congolese police open fire on demonstrators protesting presidential election delay

Critics say delay by electoral commission is designed to hurt opposition candidates

Police in eastern Congo have fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse dozens of people protesting against a presidential election delay which meant more than one million votes will not count.

The protesters in Beni said the delay announced by Congo’s electoral commission makes no sense.

Sunday’s election is now delayed until March for Beni and Butembo city because of a deadly Ebola outbreak, with a similar delay in Yumbi blamed on security issues.

The rest of the country is still set to vote on Sunday, with “definitive” results announced on 15 January. The inauguration is scheduled for three days later.

Opposition candidates called the delay a ploy to hurt their chances at the polls in areas where sentiment has turned against the ruling party in recent years.

The opposition coalition behind presidential candidate Martin Fayulu has called for a strike throughout Congo in protest, with no-one going to work.

Angry protesters in Beni marched to the local election office demanding the right to vote on Sunday with the rest of the country.

Others chanted for long-serving president Joseph Kabila to go.

Mr Kabila has said he is stepping aside after the election, which has been delayed for more than two years amid occasionally deadly protests.

He backs a ruling party candidate, but many Congolese voters believe he will wield power behind the scenes.

The protesters also demanded the resignation of the electoral commission’s president. They pointed out that candidates have campaigned in Beni and Butembo with no problems, while school, church and other activities continued despite the Ebola virus outbreak.

Clovis Mutsuva, of the LUCHA activist organisation, said: “We will continue with our marches until [commission president Corneille Nangaa] and his entourage let us vote, because it is our right as Congolese.

“We participated in campaigning and there were no Ebola infections.”

The election had already had been pushed from 23 December to Sunday after a fire in the capital, Kinshasa, destroyed voting materials.

Congo has some 40 million registered voters who will decide the fate of a vast country rich in mineral wealth, but desperately poor in infrastructure and basic services.

The latest delay has caused fresh frustration in Beni, where rebel attacks have killed more than 1,500 people in the past four years.

Such attacks have hurt efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak, which since being declared on 1 August has seen 585 cases, including 308 confirmed deaths.

Congo’s health minister, Dr Oly Ilunga, has called this Ebola outbreak the most complex in history.

In an interview with the Associated Press on 20 December, however, he said decisions about holding the election in the Ebola zone had been made with electoral authorities, and sought to calm concerns.

The Ebola virus is spread via infected bodily fluids and some have worried about using the touchscreens of voting machines.

The health minister said precautions had been taken. Several tonnes of hand sanitiser have been deployed for use in polling stations, and voters will be screened for fever before entering polling stations.

Press Association