DRC: in Goma, the displaced register to obtain their voter card

At the gates of Goma, tens of thousands of displaced people have arrived from Rutshuru territory since October 20, 2022. (illustration image) © Coralie Pierret / RFI

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

In the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, not all voters can yet register on the electoral lists and obtain their voter card.

And for good reason: part of the province of North Kivu is still under the control of the M23 rebels.

For the hundreds of thousands of displaced people who have fled the war and who are gathering at the gates of Goma, the regional capital, a temporary solution has been found: identification offices have been set up in the camps.

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With our special correspondent in Goma,

Coralie Pierret

All wait in front of one of the offices of an identification center in Kanyarucinya, where there are several camps for the displaced.

Here, in front of this wooden house, most of the voters come from Kibumba, a locality partly under the control of the M23 rebels.

They will be able to register in this office and

receive their voter card

.

Impossible on the other hand for all those who remained blocked in Kibumba, regrets Marcelin:

“ 

To cross the

M23 rebels

and get here is difficult.

We ask our government to help us fight hard so that the people who stayed there can also come here.

 »

With his wife, Marcelin arrived very early in the morning.

Just like Patrick, who has just obtained his new card: “ 

I had my old voter's card.

When you have your old card, no problem, you pass easily.

 »

Except that the majority of the displaced lost their card or any other document proving their identity when they fled their village of origin.

So, for them, a solution was found: to come with three witnesses, as assured by John, the person in charge of this identification center.

A solution to avoid the exclusion of part of the voters of North Kivu, a strategic province, as the second zone of the country in terms of electoral weight after Kinshasa.

A solution also to register a maximum of voters – there are approximately four million in this province.

But a solution against which several leaders of citizen movements or analysts protest, who consider it easy to buy or falsify.

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  • ground floor

  • Elections in the DRC

  • M23