People have started voting in the presidential election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, amid delays and reported disorganization.

On Sunday, polling staffers were setting up voting machines in stations minutes before opening.

Reuters cited a witness in the eastern city of Goma as seeing residents casting their vote, but another polling station in the city was still closed 90 minutes after polls opened at 06:00 a.m. local time (04:00 GMT).

President Joseph Kabila, who has been in power since his father’s assassination in 2001, is not standing for re-election and will step down after the vote.

Kabila’s party, the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), has designated former Interior Minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, 58, as its presidential candidate.

As well as Ramazani, the front-runners are Felix Tshisekedi, 55, of the mainstream opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), and Martin Fayulu, 62, a little-known lawmaker and former oil executive, who has made a late surge after being named the joint candidate for several opposition parties.

A total of 21 candidates are running in the presidential race.

United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday urged rival candidates to participate in a peaceful competition.

Guterres urged citizens to “seize this historic opportunity to participate in the consolidation of the country’s democratic institutions.”

The call for a peaceful vote came a few days after clashes between the supporters of rival candidates left at least one person dead and over 80 injured.

DR Congo is one of Africa’s most volatile countries and has never known a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.

In the past 22 years, two massive wars have shaken the country, claiming many lives and sucking in armies from around Southern and Central Africa.

Lower-level conflicts are burning in the center and east of the country, which analysts say could easily flare into fully-fledged wars.

Source: Presstv

Three men dominate the field of 21 candidates vying to become next president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa’s second-largest nation:

– Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary –

Little known outside DRC circles, Shadary, 58, is a faithful supporter of President Joseph Kabila and, some say, his likely puppet if he wins Sunday’s election.

Kabila would “almost certainly remain the string-puller behind the scenes,” said Indigo Ellis from risk analysis company Verisk Maplecroft.

“Shadary has no special qualities other than absolute loyalty” to Kabila, an analyst at a political NGO based in Kinshasa told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Typically dressed in a smart suit and tie, Shadary served as interior minister during a period marked by violent crackdowns on demonstrators after Kabila held onto power beyond his constitutional mandate at the end of 2016.

He and 13 other officials have been hit with EU sanctions for rights violations. In retaliation, the DRC has told Europe to withdraw its envoy from Kinshasa by polling day.

Shadary initially entered politics as a member of the UDPS, DR Congo’s oldest and biggest opposition party.

In 1997, after the fall of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, he was elected vice-governor of Maniema province and a year later became governor.

After Kabila took power in 2001 following the assassination of his father, Shadary helped him found the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) a year later. He is now its permanent secretary.

Shadary speaks Swahili and Lingala, the two languages used respectively in eastern and western DRC. He is a devout Catholic, with eight children.

– Felix Tshisekedi –

Felix Tshisekedi, 55, hopes the elections will hand him the presidential prize that eluded his late father Etienne, who founded the DRC’s mainstream opposition party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), in 1982.

Tshisekedi junior took the helm of the party after his father died in February 2017. Known to his friends as “Fatshi,” he gained a Belgian diploma in marketing and communication and rose doggedly through the party ranks.

But he has never held high office or had management experience and is hobbled by the lack of his father’s charisma. “Etienne was stubborn and proud,” says one observer of the country’s opposition.

“(But) Felix is more diplomatic, more conciliatory, more ready to listen to others.” On November 11, Tshisekedi joined six other opposition leaders to rally behind a single unity candidate, Martin Fayulu, to take on Shadary.

But the deal was rejected by the party’s rank and file. Tshisekedi and fellow opposition leader Vital Kamerhe swiftly abandoned the deal and ran on a joint ticket, effectively weakening and splitting the opposition. A father of five, he attends the same Pentecostal church in Kinshasa as Fayulu.

– Martin Fayulu –

Martin Fayulu, 62, is an outsider who shot to front-rank status in the final weeks before the elections. Fayulu came to prominence two years ago as a fiery critic of Kabila’s efforts to cling on to power.

Often seen at the front of protest marches, he was arrested several times and was even struck on the head by a rubber bullet. Although his Engagement for Citizenship and Development party holds just three seats in parliament, Fayulu was thrust into the limelight last month when he was named the consensus choice of opposition stalwarts meeting in Geneva.

Two days later, the deal fell apart when Felix Tshisekedi, bowing to grassroots pressure, decided to pursue his own election bid.

Fayulu has relentlessly toured the country to make his pitch. He is also backed from behind the scenes by two political heavyweights — ex-warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba and businessman Moise Katumbi, an exiled former provincial governor, both of whom were blocked from running.

Fayulu studied in France and the United States, later taking up a role in 1984 with the US oil group which became Exxon Mobil. He stayed with the oil giant for nearly two decades, working in Africa and eventually rising to the rank of director general.

If elected, he has pledged to invest $126 billion in the economy and create 20 million jobs over five years. A Lingala speaker, Fayulu owns a hotel in Kinshasa located between Kabila’s residence and the president’s office.

 AFP

The Gabonese president Ali Bongo will address his nation during a New Year’s speech from Rabat where is recovering, according to AFP which cited close sources to the presidency.

According to the news agency, Bongo has instructed his Prime Minister to respond to the expectations of the Gabonese people pending his return.

This will be Bongo’s first speech since he was hospitalized in Saudia Arabia on October 24 after treatment for what the presidency said was severe fatigue.

The Gabonese President was treated in a Riyadh hospital for more than a month before being transfered to Rabat, Morocco. Here, he was first taken to a military hospital, then to a private residence where is currently recuperating.

His Vice President, Pierre Claver Maganga Moussavou said Bongo suffered a stroke.

AFP