Legislative in the Congo: the organizing bodies take stock of the preparations
Voters consult a billboard in front of a polling station in the Poto-Poto district of Brazzaville, during the 2016 presidential election. Manu Pochez / RFI
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1 min
The Independent National Electoral Commission (CNEI) and the General Directorate of Electoral Affairs (DGAE), both in charge of organizing the elections, met for the first time on Saturday 4 June to take stock of the preparation of the legislative and July 10 elections.
They claim to have made significant progress for the proper conduct of the elections while the opposition believes that there are still shortcomings.
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With our correspondent in Brazzaville,
Loïcia Martial
At the end of their meeting to assess the preparatory operations for the elections, the two bodies issued a joint statement to the press in which they specified that “
all registration operations on the electoral lists have been completed
”.
“
The prefect responsible for the DGAE, who is in charge of entering the information collected, took the (measured) risk of telling us that 95% of the lists to be printed have already been printed.
And about 95% of the cards to be edited are today.
They are therefore ready
,” Henri Bouka, president of the Electoral Commission, told the press.
The CNEI and the DGAE say they want to quickly harmonize the distribution of voter cards.
To do this, they will meet the Minister of Territorial Administration, in charge of elections, to decide on the plan and date of this distribution.
However, all these provisions do not seem to reassure certain opposition parties taking part in the elections.
"
The organization will never be perfect because we are a fledgling democracy that is still looking for itself
", added on condition of anonymity an official of the Union of Humanist Democracies (DUDH-Yuki) of the
late opponent Guy-Brice Parfait Kolélas.
Initially scheduled for May 31, the closing date for submitting applications has been postponed to June 7.
In recent years, elections in the Congo have been marked either by a considerable abstention rate or by disputes before the electoral judge.
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