Herculean task

He hates to admit it, but Ekkehard Forberg, peace promotion researcher at the NGO World Vision, says, "I think because of the many opportunities for manipulation and the difficult logistical conditions, we can't say they're free and fair elections."

Violence and irregularities have overshadowed the second election day in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday. In Lubumbashi, the second biggest city in the country, several people were killed in attacks on a polling station and on trucks transporting ballot papers. Three of the attackers were shot dead by police, according to the interior minister of the Katanga Province.

And in the central city of Kananga, one of the strongholds of opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, several polling stations went up in flames, while others were simply trashed.

Severe teething troubles

In the capital Kinshasa, meanwhile, the biggest problem was not violence, but logistics – some stations lacked the ink needed to mark voters' fingers.

Justin Tshibangu, president of the St. Joseph polling station in Kinshasa, thinks all these difficulties are merely teething troubles. "It is going well," he told Deutsche Welle. "Apart from the fact that some of the documents arrived late. That's why we opened a little later. The ink for the envelopes came too late. So did the official seals for the ballot boxes. You can't vote without these things."

Only one day of voting had been planned, but because of the delays, voting was extended to Tuesday.

One of the 32 million potential voters is Nadine Tshole. She never even made it as far the telephone-book-sized list of candidates, because she couldn't find her name on the register.

"I registered, but when I went to the first polling station I couldn't find my name," she says. They then sent her on to another station. "But I couldn't find my name there either. Now I want to know what I'm supposed to do. I really want to vote. It's my duty!"

Herculean task

Organizing an election in a country the size of Western Europe is certainly not easy. As many as 63,000 polling stations were set up for the electorate, who had 11 presidential candidates to choose from, plus nearly 19,000 candidates for the 500 parliamentary seats.

Despite the obstacles, the Congolese people did not allow themselves to be disheartened – not even in the unruly provinces of North and South Kivu, the eastern regions still considered a conflict zone.

While the civil war ended in 2002 for most of the country, violence continues in these provinces to this day, as several armed militias fight each other for control of the gold, silver and coltan mines.

Voting in a conflict zone

Despite the fighting, election observers found massive support for the election in the North Kivu capital of Goma. "I just voted and it went well," reported Christina Msaidisi, looking almost relieved. "It didn't take long. A man checked if I really was on the list, then he ticked my name. I think it was well-organized."

Msaidisi also said she saw an illiterate person being accompanied into the voting booth by two officials – one from the majority party, and one from the opposition. "I think it all went very well," she said.

But observers found irregularities in Goma too. Some of the ballot boxes, for instance, were apparently already a third full on delivery. When asked, election volunteers said they had simply decided to vote in advance, but observers noted that there were rather more votes than volunteers.

But despite the chaotic preparations, the violence and the suspected manipulation, World Vision's Forberg thinks the Congo election could still be a success.

"Of course you can't compare an election in Congo with one in Germany or Europe," he says. "But as long as it happens in a framework where you think that the result more or less reflects the opinion of the population, it is usually accepted."

Author: Stefanie Duckstein / bk
Editor: Michael Knigge