Protests in eastern DRC after new election delay

Police fired teargas and shots were heard as hundreds of people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) protested on Thursday at a move to delay upcoming elections in their region, an AFP reporter said.

Demonstrations erupted a day after the DRC’s national election commission announced that tomorrow’s nationwide vote would be postponed in several troubled areas until March.

However, the vote will continue to take place in the rest of the country as scheduled, and the next president will be sworn in on January 18, it said.

In the province of North Kivu, the region most affected by the decision, several hundred demonstrators gathered in the administrative district of the city of Beni.

Gunshots were heard over a roughly hour-long period, but it was unclear who was shooting or if there were any casualties.

In Goma, the provincial capital, demonstrators set up barricades in the districts of Majengo and Katimbo and at the entrance to the university.

Police fired teargas and made at least half a dozen arrests, said an AFP reporter at the scene.

The election postponement applies to the cities of Beni and Butembo in North Kivu, as well as to the territory of Yumbi in the southwestern province of Mai-Ndombe.

Around three percent of some 40 million registered voters will be affected by the delay.

The announcement by the Independent National Election Commission (CENI) blamed militia violence and an outbreak of Ebola in North Kivu, and inter-communal clashes in Yumbi.

Tomorrow’s election will be the DRC’s first presidential ballot in seven years. Legislative and municipal elections are being held at the same time.

The presidential vote should have been held in 2016 when President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, reached a two-term limit set under the constitution.

But he remained in office, invoking a caretaker clause under the constitution.

The elections were twice postponed until a new date was set for December 23 – and were then delayed by another week. CENI blamed a warehouse fire that destroyed election equipment.

The problems have fueled tensions in the DRC, one of Africa’s most volatile countries, prompting concern among its neighbours, the UN and western powers.

Meanwhile, five African heads of state on Wednesday voiced “strong concern over acts of violence” during the presidential campaign of the DRC, where voting has been postponed in two restive regions.

Clashes in some locations are enough “to compromise voter’s peace of mind,” added a statement issued at the end of a one-day summit held in the neighbouring Republic of Congo.

A DRC representative was not present, but summit leaders decided that a delegation of foreign ministers presented “their conclusions” to DRC Kabila on Thursday.

About a dozen people have died in DRC campaign violence according to various sources, which Kabila’s government has denied.

Opposition candidate Martin Fayulu also claims that he was prevented from visiting three cities, Kindu, Kolwezi and Kinshasa, during the campaign.

On Wednesday, eight nations in southern and central Africa mulled the situation in DRC, a country that has been a regional battleground twice in the last quarter-century.

The mini-summit was held in Brazzaville, four days before problem-strewn elections across the border.

African leaders focused on “the electoral process in the DRC,” said Cyprien Sylvestre Mamina, secretary general for foreign affairs in the Republic of Congo.

The meeting brought together many members of the the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).

Those attending were Angola, Botswana, Congo, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia.

– The European Union on Thursday lashed out at DRC’s decision to expel its ambassador, calling the move “completely unjustified”, just three days before crucial elections.

DRC Foreign Minister Leonard She Okitundu earlier told the EU it had 48 hours to withdraw its representative in retaliation for sanctions against 14 officials, including Kabila’s handpicked candidate for the long-delayed vote.

An EU spokesperson said the bloc “regrets this decision and considers it as completely unjustified”.

“On the eve of very challenging elections in DRC, such a decision can only be considered counterproductive.”

On December 10, EU foreign ministers extended a travel ban and asset freeze on 14 figures over “the obstruction of the electoral process and the related human rights violations”.

That included Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, a hardline former interior minister chosen by Kabila to be the candidate for his succession in tomorrow’s presidential election. – AFPAl Jazeera