• The International Crisis Group says more than a million people will fail to vote in the DRC because of conflict in the east.
• The Independent National Electoral Commission`s credibility is in question.
• The African Union and international actors were urged to work closely to help the DRC hold credible elections.
More than a million people have been disenfranchised in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) some two months before the general elections, the International Crisis Group (ICG) claims.
This was due to fighting mostly in the eastern part of the country, in North Kivu and surrounding areas, where rebel groups are concentrated, the rights group said.
`Fighting in the east and other areas has left more than a million citizens without voter cards,` said the ICG in its latest report titled `Elections in DR Congo: Limiting the Risk of Violence`.
President Felix Tshisekedi will be seeking a second and last constitutional term in the December poll. He will probably face challenges from 23 other candidates whose names are before the Independent National Electoral Commission, also known by its French name, Commission Electorale Nationale Indépendante (CENI).
In the coming weeks, the CENI is expected to vet the candidates and come up with a final list.
The ICG said there were concerns that the results would be contested because of an uneven electoral playing field.
`The opposition, faced with increased government repression and a National Independent Electoral Commission that they see as biased in favour of the ruling party, is tempted to reject each step,` the report says.
DR Congo: 24 aspirants apply to vie for presidency in the forthcoming polls
Onesphore Sematumba, ICG analyst for the DRC and Burundi, said international partners, as well as the African Union (AU), should work with political stakeholders in the DRC to avoid bloodshed in the event of disputed results.
He said:
International actors, starting with African powers influential in Kinshasa, as well as Western actors, should encourage the government and opposition to find compromises on contentious issues and stand ready to offer mediation if the results are contested.
Learning from the election of 2018 that

ushered Tshisekedi into office, the ICG said there was already a high rate of `localised violence`, intimidation of some candidates, and chances of manipulation on the part of CENI.
If the electoral body was not adequately funded, there would be room for corruption.
Richard Moncrieff, the ICG`s acting director of the Great Lakes Project, said the CENI has a central role to play in bringing together political parties to discuss the country`s preparedness for the polls.
`It is imperative that the Independent National Electoral Commission maintain a high level of transparency to facilitate discussions between the political parties on the possibility of a postponement, if necessary,` he said.
Some of the suggestions tabled by ICG to help the DRC move towards more transparent, credible, and violence-free elections are:
• In order to allay concerns about impartiality, the government should bolster trust in the security forces by guaranteeing a regional balance in the present recruitment exercise.
• After the state of siege in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri was partially lifted, authorities in these regions need to be especially watchful to guarantee that political liberties are respected during the election season.
• All parties must be able to run for office if the government is to maintain control of its security services.
• Restrictions on political gatherings should be minimised, and party leaders should urge their followers to refrain from using violence in demonstrations.
In December 2005, after a constitutional referendum, multi-party elections returned to the DRC after 46 years.
The elections held in July 2006 saw Joseph Kabila elected after running the country since the death of his father Laurent Kabila in 2001.
Kabila was re-elected in 2011, and his term ended in 2016, but was extended by two years due to the ongoing conflict in the eastern parts of the country.
In 2018, Kabila was not on the ballot as Tshisekedi earned his first presidential term, although there were concerns of potential electoral fraud. V.5052

There are fears that more people will be separated by the introduction of a minimum salary level for those wanting UK family visas. Families living in the UK and abroad have raised concerns about what new rules will mean for them as they try to reunite with foreign spouses. In December, the Home Office, which says migration to the UK is too high, announced a package of measures to reduce net migration, following a spike in arrival numbers. V.5318
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An Ethiopian asylum seeker, who does not speak English, claims he was duped by a senior immigration official into paying an admission of guilt fine when he thought he was paying for bail.Two Western Cape High Court judges have condemned the official`s `deplorable` behaviour, set aside the fine, and ordered the immigration official be taken off the case. Tsegaye Esyas claims Annelise van Dyk treated him like an animal which led to him attempt suicide while in police cells. V.5320
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EREMY MAGGS: I want to stay with crime now. Individuals with a criminal record may be faced with significant challenges when seeking employment, I think that’s a given. Here in South Africa, employers may legally exclude an applicant from consideration for a position if having a clean criminal record is what is termed an inherent requirement of the job. That phrase, inherent requirement, is important, but what exactly does that mean, and when can an applicant be lawfully excluded for having a criminal record? V.5321
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As a South African who has adopted a nomadic work lifestyle alongside my wife, Ingrid Lotze, I’ve been an interested observer of South Africa’s snail-pace digital nomad visa (DNV) development process. Despite the optimism surrounding its introduction, the visa seems to miss several crucial marks for digital nomads like us. V.5322
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DA MP says hours lost continue to result in persons being unable to collect their ID documents due to unmanageable queues The DA has been inundated with complaints that the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) systems are offline, resulting in long queues and delayed processing of documents. Through questions posed to the Minister, the DA can now reveal that the DHA has lost over 77 years’ worth of working hours due to system downtime and load-shedding from 2019 to date. Concerningly, this data only relates to hours lost for the application of smart IDs, meaning decades more of working hours could have been additionally lost in other spheres such as passport or visa applications. V.5314
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Home Affairs’ seemingly endless court battles set the department back more than R110-million between April 2023 and the end of February this year. This was revealed in a written parliamentary response by minister Aaron Motsoaledi. He said the department accumulated a litigation bill of R117 692 996.3, higher than the R72 637 944.51 spent the year before. V.5315
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Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) this week revealed that Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) has achieved a ground-breaking milestone by processing more than 10 million passengers over a single financial year. This is the highest number of regional and international passengers processed since COVID-19 V.5316
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In recent years, South Africa has seen a significant influx of immigrants from various African countries, as well as other parts of the world. This has raised important questions about the country`s immigration policies and their impact on job creation for both locals and immigrants. The South African immigration system, like many other countries, is a complex and ever-evolving process that aims to balance the country`s economic needs with its social and cultural interests. Let`s take a closer look at how this system intersects with job creation in South Africa. The South African government implemented the Immigration Act of 2002, which outlines the country`s immigration policies and procedures. Under this act, foreigners are required to obtain a visa or permit to enter, work, or study in South Africa. The type of visa or permit required depends on the intended purpose of the individual`s visit and their country of origin. V.5312
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Due to system downtime and load-shedding, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) lost nearly 141,000 hours of Smart ID application and production time between the 2019/20 and 2022/23 financial years. Minister Aaron Motsoaledi revealed this figure in a recent response to questions raised in Parliament by Democratic Alliance MP Adrian Roos. Motsoaledi provided a breakdown of smart ID production and application hours lost to technical difficulties and load-shedding per province for each financial year from 2019/2020. These disruptions hit home Affairs offices in the Eastern Cape the hardest, with over 34,000 hours to rotational power cuts and system downtime. Mpumalanga offices lost the next-highest number of hours at 17 V.5313
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Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has said the public has shown great support for the final White Paper on citizenship, immigration and refugee protection which appeared in the Government Gazette on Wednesday. Briefing the media, he addressed what he saw as a long-overdue need to replace an outdated Citizenship Act, as well as enact proposed changes to existing legislation. V.5306
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