DRC: Shadary of Kabila’s Party Confident of Winning Sunday’s Election

Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, one of the candidates in the DRC Presidential election has said he is confident of winning the race.

Citizens in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Sunday took to the polls to elect the successor of incumbent President, Joseph Kabila who has ruled the country for 17 years.

After casting his ballot, Shadary, the candidate for the ruling party said he was confident he will emerge the winner in the presidential election, whose results will be announced in a week’s time.

“Everything has gone well during these campaigns. I will be elected and I am the President from tonight,” he said.

In August, Kabila’s ruling coalition, Common Front For Congo (FCC) picked 57-year-old Shadary, a former Minister of the Interior and Permanent Secretary of Kabila’s party (PPRD) as its candidate for the Presidential elections.

Congo, Africa’s largest copper producer, has never had peaceful transfer of power of power.

Observers are reporting largely a peaceful voting exercise in most parts of the country but challenges related to delay in the arrival of voting materials at some particular polling centres and names of people missing on voting lists have been noticed.

“We will be patient in this exercise because we want to vote and force Kabila and his group out of power,” Agnes Maki, a voter from Goma told SoftPower News shortly after casting her ballot in favor of Martin Fayulu.

The election is taking place after it was delayed for more than two years. Close to 40 million people are eligible to vote in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where President Joseph Kabila – in power since 2001 – is standing down.

But today’s poll has in the recent days attracted violence and controversy over the decision by the country’s electoral commission to exclude almost 1.3m people from voting.

Voting began at 05:00 (04:00 GMT) and ends at 17:00. There are long queues this Sunday morning in the eastern city of Goma.

A recent opinion poll placed opposition leader, Martin Fayulu in the lead of the Presidential race with 44% while Felix Tshisekedi followed with 23 percent and Shadary with 18 percent.