By PATRICK ILUNGA

More by this Author

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have decided to shut down its land and sea borders for 24 hours as it prepared for elections on Wednesday.

And according to the General Directorate of Migration, borders would be shut from Wednesday morning from 12:00 am to 11:59 pm the same day.

'The airspace will also be closed to unauthorised local flights but international flights will continue normally," a statement from the Directorate said on Tuesday evening.

Read: For ‘unsafe’ East DRC, voting remains a distant dream

"Internet connection will however not be cut off," reassured Deputy Prime Minister of the Interior and Security Peter Kazadi on Tuesday.

“We are not in a situation of war or popular uprising,” he said.

“On December 20, there will be a morning, an evening and we will all sleep at home,” he added, indicating that other usual daily businesses will continue.  

Some 44 million voters are eligible to cast their ballots on Wednesday to elect a president from among 22 candidates including the incumbent Felix Tshisekedi.

Voters will also elect legislators and representatives in the municipal elections.

The government assured on Tuesday that the police and other security services have been deployed in all 75,478 polling stations across the country.

Kazadi, however, acknowledged that "there are political and security threats to the holding of the elections”.

Read: Problems loom a week from DRC vote

In the east of the country, recent violence between armed groups and government forces have threatened the ability of one million voters to participate. A truce brokered by Washington means there is an expected ceasefire for at least the next 14 days from last week on Thursday.

“The defence and security forces have taken all the necessary steps to deal with these security challenges,” Kazadi said on Tuesday in Kinshasa.

He called on the Congolese people to do everything possible to avoid violence. "Don't destroy what we have worked so hard to build. The elections are only one day away,” he said. 

According to the deputy prime minister of the Interior, "the security services have already arrested 5 people of foreign nationality equipped with sophisticated devices who intended to disrupt the elections".

Kazadi also stated that the people arrested had claimed that 50 other people had been recruited to do a dirty job.

The five suspects whose identities was not revealed were said to plan to “hack into the electoral commission's server and electronic system in order to fabricate their result in favour of a presidential candidate,” the official added without naming the candidate.

The deputy prime minister also accused the European Union's electoral observation mission, whose accreditation was refused by the Congolese authorities, except for the city of Kinshasa, also had the aim of infiltrating and hacking into the electoral commission's electronic system in order to endorse one candidate. 

The European Union representatives in Kinshasa did not immediately comment on the allegations.

Read: Why EAC won't send observers to DRC polls

Deputy Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Bemba also made the allegations, saying that he had been well informed by the intelligence services.

And although campaigns ended formally on Monday, Bemba accused Moïse Katumbi, one of the candidates, of trying to influence the votes illegally.

“I am speaking as Minister for Defence. I am warning the population of what this man is up to.

“We have received information from Russia, where he has contacted a Russian organisation to be able to give a lot of money and enter the electoral commission's system in order to publish false results. We have the proof.”

“I say be careful! He's going to try to set the country on fire. I say watch out for the backlash. The minute he tries to do that, we'll use the police to restore order,” Bemba claimed.

Katumbi has recently faced accusations of holding a foreign passport, which could render him ineligible to run. The local courts approved his entry into the race, however.

But he has faced more accusations including the latest one of being behind a hacking scheme.