The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s general elections are scheduled for December 20. The European Union has cancelled its election observation mission, citing security concerns that prevent it from deploying observers throughout the nation.
“Due to technical constraints beyond the control of the EU, we are forced to cancel the EU election observation mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),” the European Union said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The EU mission had planned to deploy long-term observers in most provinces of the DRC, but this is now no longer possible,” added the statement.
Election observers were scheduled to be dispersed across the nation on November 21; however, EU spokesperson Nabila Massrali informed Reuters on Tuesday that they could not travel due to security concerns. Instead, they were already in Kinshasa.
In addition to fighting to tame a plethora of armed factions in its mineral-rich east, Africa’s second-largest nation is experiencing high levels of tension in the run-up to regional, presidential, and legislative elections.
Stones thrown during an opposition campaign event in the city of Kindu on Tuesday killed a young activist.
Concerns regarding voting fairness have also been voiced by opposition candidates, who claim that errors during voter registration favour the ruling alliance. That is not what the election commission has said.
A request for comment on Wednesday was not immediately answered by the Congolese authorities or the electoral commission.
“When the long-distance observers were due to be deployed, the authorities began to raise a whole series of problems relating to the use of satellite equipment and to impose other conditions that did not allow the observers to work in a secure and independent manner outside Kinshasa,” according to a European diplomat who requested confidentiality.
The EU stated that it was discussing further alternatives with the Congolese authorities, such as the potential to keep an electoral specialists’ mission to monitor the process from the capital.
