Postponed Election Sparks Protests Across D.R.C.

A wave of violent protests broke out across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on October 20 when the electoral commission announced that the upcoming election, set to be held in November 2016, will be postponed for at least 2 years. According to the electoral commission, President Joseph Kabila will remain in power until December 2018 due to “lack of funds and logistical obstacles.” Over 50 people were killed last month in clashes in the capital, Kinshasa, by Kabila’s security forces. With the current decision to postpone the election, the DRC’s most senior UN official, Maman Sambo Sidikou, says that “large-scale violence is all but inevitable.”

President Kabila took power in 2001 after the assassination of his father but was not formally elected president until 2006. The constitution mandates a maximum of two five-year terms as president. This November marks the end of Kabila’s second term.

Kabila is not the DRC’s first president to refuse to allow for a democratically elected predecessor, which has not had a peaceful transition of power since 1960. Yet Kabila’s presidency was at one point a source of great optimism for the Congolese people, signifying an era under a new constitution ending “Africa’s Great War.”

The Second Congo War, which began in 1998, lasted until Kabila’s rise to power in 2003, costing over five million lives in the process. Now, Kabila’s direct violation of law has disrupted the country’s recent peaceful trend and begins a cycle of violence and political instability.

Kabila has repeatedly denied accusations that he is intentionally postponing the election and has called for patience until steps are taken so it can be carried out properly. However, time is running out for Kabila, who is facing pressure to accept the end of his term and allow for a new president to emerge for both the Congolese people and the international community. The world will be watching Kabila’s decision as the DRC descends into violence once again.