Campaigning For Critical Election Opens In Crisis-wracked DR Congo

Kinshasa, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Nov, 2018 ) :After two years of setbacks, broken promises and delays, the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday effectively opened the starting gates for a crucial election that could alleviate -- or perhaps worsen -- the decades-long crisis gripping the vast central African nation.

"May the best person win," electoral board chief Corneille Nangaa said, pre-empting the official start of campaigning by a day.

Voters on December 23 will choose a successor to outgoing President Joseph Kabila, who has constitutionally remained in power as caretaker leader even though his second and final elected term ended nearly two years ago.

At stake in the vote is the political stewardship of a mineral-rich country that has never known a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.

Eastern DR Congo is ravaged by decades of inter-ethnic bloodshed and militia violence, as well as a deadly Ebola outbreak, testing a large UN peacekeeping mission deployed in the country.

- Opposition candidate - Twenty-one candidates are registered to vie to replace the 47-year-old Kabila, who has ruled since January 2001, after his father, president Laurent-Desire Kabila, was assassinated.

Under international pressure against him seeking a third term, Kabila threw his support behind a chosen successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, in August.

Shadary is one of 15 Congolese individuals under European Union sanctions, accused of human rights violations when he was interior minister between December 2016 and early 2018.

One of Shadary's main rivals is Martin Fayulu, a little-known lawmaker who earlier this month was named the joint candidate of several -- but not all -- opposition parties that form a coalition in the parliament.

Fayulu arrived in the capital Kinshasa from Europe on Wednesday -- which also happened to be his 62nd birthday -- to launch his campaign to take the presidential Palais de la Nation.

"The joint (opposition) candidate is here. I am here," Fayulu told reporters after being greeted by hundreds of supporters.

Around half of DR Congo's population of 80 million are eligible to vote.