All eyes are fixed on December 23, 2018, date set by the Independent National Electoral Commission of the Democratic Republic of Congo (CENI), when the general presidential, legislative and local elections will take place for Congolese voters to choose their next president.
Despite what politicians and the media sometimes reports, the electoral commission is still on track to hold peaceful, transparent and fair elections on the set date.
The voters’ registration has been completed, the electoral roll has been published by the Electoral Commission and after a thorough audit by the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), it was deemed to be inclusive, comprehensive and up to date.
The necessary steps are being taken towards a fair, transparent and peaceful electoral process and election. The electoral calendar set tasks are being followed by the electoral commission to ensure that the DRC will have a peaceful transfer of power that the country has yet to experience.
One may ask if we are taking this election seriously and indeed we are. As the President of the Electoral Commission, my staff and I are completing necessary tasks as we prepare for our upcoming election and taking the necessary steps to implement all that have been set out to accomplish. For example, the electoral law has been adopted in both parliament chambers and promulgated by the head of state, we have completed voters’ registration throughout the country, had an audit done on the electoral roll, helped produce the electoral mapping and also published the voters’ statistics by constituency.
Having accomplished all that is listed above, our job has not finished yet. Candidates for president and national members of parliament need to submit their applications to run for upcoming elections. While this is being done we will also will be training 650,000 people to assist the electoral commission on Election Day at the 90,000 polling stations across the country.
Also, we have introduced a touchscreen voting system that will be used for first time in our 90,000 polling stations; we will therefore be training voters by showing them how to use these new voting machines [that have been used in other elections around the world successfully].
I do agree that the Independent National Electoral Commission, over which I preside, has a big undertaking, but we are committed to complete our tasks and get our nation ready for the most important elections of our history later this year.
Congolese people will vote on December 23 and these elections will indeed be transparent, free, democratic and peaceful.
Corneille Nangaa is president of CENI, the independent election commission of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
