Regional blocs meet over DRC election delay
Wednesday December 26 2018
A sample of the voting machines that will be used during the Democratic Republic of the Congo's elections. PHOTO | AFP
The heads of state of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) were Wednesday meeting in Brazzaville, the Republic of Congo, to analyse the situation in DRC.
According to the Angolan presidency, the meeting is organised by Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who is chairing ICGR.
The joint regional summit comes in the wake of the delayed DR Congo General Election, earlier scheduled to be held on December 23.
The DR Congo national poll agency, Ceni, ordered a week-long postponement to December 30.
Voting machines
The expansive country has been on the edge over the election many hoped would defuse the two-year-old crisis surrounding the future of President Joseph Kabila.
Ceni blamed a warehouse fire for destroying voting machines and ballot papers earmarked for Kinshasa.
The SADC bloc includes Angola, Botswana, DR Congo, Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Malawi, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
ICGLR members include Angola, DRC and the Republic of Congo.
Other members are Burundi, the Central African Republic, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.