Enlistment operations North Kivu, Goma on February 13, 2023
Radio Okapi. Ph/ Bernardin Diambu”/>
Hundreds of applicants in single file, desperately for some, were waiting in Goma (North Kivu) to be enrolled until the last day of voter enrollment and identification operations in operational area 3 (provinces eastern DRC), on Friday 31 March.
“I spent almost a week looking for the voter’s card. I circled at least four centers. I don’t even hope today. If I get it, then it’s a chance,” said an applicant, at the Carmel center in the Katindo district of Goma.
Many of them plead with the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) in favor of a second extension like the other provinces to allow everyone to obtain their voter card.
“It’s very disheartening, the way people suffer looking for the map! We don’t even know if we’ll have the courage to vote. The CENI must review its way of working and improve its logistics. There are fewer machines,” laments another applicant.
The situation is the same in another center visited by Radio Okapi reporters. A father said he spent more than a week in front of the center, without even getting an attendance fee. He asks that North Kivu benefit from the favor like other provinces. He too is seeking a second extension:
” I am pessimist. I do not believe. They did 30 days, we were at 22%. They increased 15 days, is it possible that we enlist everyone? I do not believe. Another extension is needed. And also increase the machines to enroll people easily. I knew that with the numbers of people here, it is practically impossible that we close the operation”.
The CENI rapporteur says he is working to see how to absorb everyone. He still speaks of the satisfactory results so far: more than 70% of the population already enrolled in North Kivu, without the territories of Masisi and Rutshuru.