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44 million Congolese voters are expected to go to the polls on Wednesday to elect the Democratic Republic of Congo’s president, members of national and provincial assemblies and city councils.
The presidential election attracted great attention from domestic and foreign observers. Of the 26 candidates who registered at the start of the presidential campaign, only 19 were still in the race on election day. The other seven candidates had already joined forces to run.
Outgoing President Felix Tshisekedi’s main rivals include former Katanga governor Moise Katumbi, Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege and Martin Fayulu, who finished behind Tshisekedi in the last presidential election.
On October 30, Congo’s Constitutional Court ruled to allow all major candidates to continue in the presidential race, dismissing challenges to Moise Katumbi’s candidacy and even allowing two other candidates deemed ineligible by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) to run in a tense campaign that ended on Monday with candidates across the vast south-central African country.
For the first time in three democratic elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, voters will be able to elect their own representatives at the municipal level.
Congolese citizens living in South Africa, Belgium, France, Canada and the United States can also vote at polling stations set up by these countries’ embassies in Congo.
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