Democratic Republic of the Congo - December 2023

General elections (for members of local councils, the National Assembly and the president) were held on 20 December. The context included a lack of transportation infrastructure, violent conflict in the east, and many thousands of internally displaced persons. The voting period was extended in some locations by several days in an attempt to overcome logistical and procedural problems. The official results showed that incumbent President Felix Tshisekedi won re-election with 73.3 per cent of the valid votes. His party, Union for Democracy and Social Progress (Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social, UDPS), won the most seats in the National Assembly, and together with its coalition partners will have a strong majority. Turnout was 41.0 per cent of those registered, down from 45.4 per cent in the last general election in 2018. Women continued to be underrepresented among the candidates for office. Only two of the 26 candidates for President were women, and less than one third of the 100,000 candidates for the various offices were women. Observers noted a large number of logistical and procedural problems, ranging from long delays in opening polling places, to fights, and even polling places that were ransacked or set on fire. Despite these problems, the Supreme Court dismissed appeals and confirmed the official result on 9 January 2024.

Sources: Commission Electorale Nationale Independante, Southern African Development Community, Anadolu Agensi, International IDEA, CENCO-ECC (1), CENCO-ECC (2), France24