High stakes, long wait: What outcome for DR Congo after elections?

On Déc 21, 2023

Issued on: 21/12/2023 – 22:30

The stakes are as high as the wait is long in CongoVoting rolled over for an unscheduled second day in a sprawling, often unruly Central African nation that’s picking a president, national, regional and municipal lawmakers. The logistics are challenging, the politics are rough in a resources-rich nation that’s dogged by poverty, corruption and decades of insurgencies in the east.

Five years ago, the D-R Congo voted out an incumbent president peacefully through the ballot box. The process though was far from perfect, with evidence of wide-scale irregularities. Will this time be different? We’ll ask our panel about the players…

… and the arbiters who include both poll monitors from the clergy and a national electoral commission. In a nation where the state itself is weak, we’ll measure what’s changed in five years… whether citizens have benefited at all from a precious minerals boom… and what’s next for what’s now the world’s biggest francophone nation.

Produced by Charles Wente, Guillaume Gougeon and Juliette Brown.