By FRED OLUOCH

More by this Author

The Democratic Republic of Congo elections have been postponed for a week to allow the electoral commission put in place required logistics.

A section of the opposition say that the seven-day postponement is meant to buy time since the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) has no finances for logistics after rejecting foreign help.

CENI chairman Corneille Nangaa postponed the elections because of a fire at their warehouse that destroyed 8,000 of 10,000 voting machines earmarked for Kinshasa, meaning 19 of 24 polling districts in the capital could not vote.

But David Mialano, a member of the opposition coalition who is in exile in Kenya, told The EastAfrican that there is no guarantee that things will change within seven days and that CENI has no finances to transport and support its workers in the vast country.

“When CENI goes against its own timetable, it means that they have realised that the elections may not be held at all or will not be credible by world standards.

“They are now seeking to plunge the country into civil strife, because it would be difficult for the electoral body to procure the machines within seven days,” said Mr Mialano.

CENI could not meet the $1.8 billion required for the presidential, legislative and local elections and are working on $432 million provided by the government.

'Foreign interference'

The DRC government has rejected support from international donors on grounds of “foreign interference.”

The government also refused to accept election observers from the European Union and Carter Centre, which gave the impression that it was not ready for international assessment of its preparedness.

A week earlier, government spokesperson Lambert Mende had maintained that the elections would be held as scheduled and alleged that the opposition was behind the fire in Kinshasa in a bid to sabotage the elections.

Prince Kitoko, member of civil society who lives in South Africa, said there had been earlier indications that President Joseph Kabila was not keen on elections because he does not want to retire.

The leading candidate among the 21 contenders are former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary—who was handpicked by President Kabila — and two opposition candidates — Felix Tshisekedi and the united opposition candidate, and Martin Fayulu.

During the campaigns, security forces have been violently disrupting opposition rallies, especially those of Mr Fayulu.

Between December 9 and 13, security forces killed at least seven opposition supporters, wounded more than 50 people, and arbitrarily detained scores of others. The opposition remains suspicious about the touch screen voting machines.

The South Korean technology has been rejected in Argentina and the United States and European countries have also expressed concerns that the 100,000 new electronic voting machines are untested and could allow fraud.