Kinshasa was the scene on Sunday July 19 of a new march - for the third time in ten days - against the choice of a new president to head the Electoral Commission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Prohibited by the authorities like the other two, this walk took place this time without incident. The security forces supervised the several hundred activists who had answered the call of the Lay Coordination Committee (CLC), a Catholic collective.

End of today's peaceful marches:

1. For a depoliticized, truly independent and credible CENI;
2. For the financial and technical audit of @cenirdc and its reform prior to the designation of new leaders.

No incidents reported yet. pic.twitter.com/XQkPnrNT4d

- LUCHA 🇨🇩 (@luchaRDC) July 19, 2020

At least five protesters were killed during the first march on July 9 at the call of the presidential party Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS). A police officer was lynched to death.

On July 13, the march at the call of the opposition coalition Lamuka had brought together thousands of demonstrators in Kinshasa, dispersed with tear gas at the end of the procession.

These three marches opposed the choice of an executive from the outgoing team at the head of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), Ronsard Malonda.

Already approved by the National Assembly, the choice of Ronsard Malonda must be validated or not by the President of the Republic Félix Tshisekedi.

"We want a depoliticized Ceni"

The demonstrators accuse Ronsard Malonda, current executive secretary of the CENI, of having participated in the "fraud" during the previous elections.

"This time we want a depoliticized CENI, a credible CENI so that we no longer know the electoral chaos that we experienced in 2018," said Gertrude Ekombe, of the Lay Coordination Committee (CLC).

It was the CENI which declared Félix Tshisekedi - from the opposition UDPS party - winner of the presidential election on December 30, 2018.

The Common Front for Congo (FCC) of its predecessor Joseph Kabila had kept the majority in the National Assembly, according to these same results of the CENI, validated by the Constitutional Court.

The opposition coalition Lamuka then denounced results "fabricated" by the CENI by claiming the victory of its candidate, Martin Fayulu.

The Catholic Church had also expressed strong reservations about these results of the CENI, as did, for a time, the African Union (AU) and France.

With AFP

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