Elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

History

Early efforts at political organization

The emergence of political parties in the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) occurred relatively late, beginning in 1957, less than three years before independence. Prior to this period, most organized groups were sociocultural or ethnic associations, or networks formed by former students of missionary schools. These organizations generally showed little interest in political matters, particularly in seeking or exercising political authority. However, during the 1957 municipal elections, some of these associations evolved into political platforms supporting emerging leaders.

The first municipal elections organized by the Belgian colonial administration were held in 1957, primarily in major cities to establish local governance structures led by indigenous mayors and municipal councillors. In Léopoldville (now Kinshasa), these elections were widely boycotted, and ABAKO, favored by the colonial authorities, secured a decisive victory by winning 8 of the 10 municipalities and 120 of the 170 council seats. These elections were marked by a strong reliance on ethnic affiliation in candidate nominations and selection, which entrenched political mobilization along ethnic and regional lines. As a result, parties such as the National Unity Party (Parti de l'unité nationale; PUNA) drew most of their support from Équateur, the African Mutual Party (Parti Solidaire Africain; PSA) from Kwango, ABAKO from Bas-Congo, Centre du Regroupement Africain (CEREA) from Kivu, and BALUBAKAT from Katanga. This pattern was primarily shaped by the delayed rise of nationalism, the vast territorial expanse that hindered nationwide party organization, and the restrictive colonial regime, which tolerated only social and cultural associations while repressing genuine political and nationalist movements.

The 1960 electoral process

Main article: 1960 Belgian Congo general election

During the Belgo-Congolese Round Table Conference held in Brussels in January and February 1960, Congolese political leaders agreed on the organization of municipal elections in March and national elections in May of the same year. However, in their determination to secure independence for the Belgian Congo, political actors allowed little time for adequate preparation, which resulted in elections conducted under difficult material and psychological conditions. The Fundamental Law laid out the institutional framework of the newly independent state, establishing a bicameral parliament composed of a Chamber of Representatives with 117 members elected by universal suffrage and a senate of 87 members chosen by provincial assemblies at a rate of 14 per province. The president of the republic was to be elected indirectly by the senate. At the provincial level, elected assemblies and provincial governments were also planned. The 1960 elections were characterized by trivial political competition and highly populist campaign promises, such as the abolition of taxes or labor obligations after independence. Electoral competition was heavily influenced by ethnic and regional considerations. In Katanga, BALUBAKAT mobilized around ethnic exclusivism; Congolese National Movement-Lumumba (MNC-L) and LUNC allied against Congolese National Movement-Kalonji (MNC-Kalonji), which was largely supported by Baluba from Kasaï; ABAKO was dominated by the Bakongo; CEREA drew its base from the various ethnic groups of Kivu; and PUNA relied mainly on voters from Équateur. In the national legislative elections, the MNC-L secured the most significant number of seats with 36 deputies, followed by ABAKO with 12, while the remaining seats were distributed among other parties. These results led to the formation of the first government under Prime Minister Patrice Émery Lumumba on 21 June 1960. In the subsequent presidential vote, Joseph Kasa-Vubu was indirectly elected by the senate with 159 votes, defeating Jean Bolikango, who received 44 votes, while 11 ballots were declared invalid. From 30 June 1960, the day following independence, widespread disorder engulfed the country and rendered the newly created institutions ineffective. The ensuing crisis persisted until 1965 and was driven by Lumumba's assassination, the collapse of negotiations at the Lovanium Conclave, convened to unite political forces under Cyrille Adoula, the fragmentation of the state, and the repeated failures of the governments led by Joseph Iléo and Cyrille Adoula.

The 1965 electoral process

Main article: 1965 Democratic Republic of the Congo general election

The 1965 elections were organized under the government of Moïse Tshombe, who had recently returned from exile and was entrusted with ending the prolonged crisis, restoring peace, and ensuring that electoral deadlines were respected. This period created favorable conditions for the reorganization of political forces that had previously been weakened or fragmented by rebellion, secession, and exile. Tshombe initiated the Congolese National Convention (Convention Nationale Congolaise, contracted as CONACO), a broad coalition that brought together 49 political parties and associations based mainly on ethnic affiliations. At the same time, nationalist movements, including the MNC-L, regrouped and restructured after having been dispersed by conflict and exile.

The elections began on 20 February 1965 and concluded on 1 April 1965, with delays caused by security concerns and communication difficulties. CONACO won a decisive victory and secured 122 of the 167 parliamentary seats. However, serious electoral irregularities were reported in several regions that had previously experienced rebellion, including Kwilu, eastern Kivu, Goma, Rutshuru, Fizi, Maniema, and the Cuvette Centrale. Due to these irregularities, such as the absence of ballot boxes and voter intimidation, the Léopoldville Court of Appeal invalidated the election results in those areas.

The aftermath of the elections was marked by intense political disputes and numerous legal challenges that severely undermined the political life. As the mandates of both Tshombe's transitional government and President Joseph Kasa-Vubu approached their end, tensions escalated between the two leaders. Kasa-Vubu argued that Tshombe's government should step down once the final election results were announced and parliament convened, whereas Tshombe insisted on remaining in office until the presidential election scheduled for December 1965. On 13 October, President Kasa-Vubu dismissed Tshombe's cabinet before an extraordinary session of parliament and appointed Évariste Kimba to form a new government. Kimba failed to gain parliamentary confidence, receiving 134 votes against him out of 262, yet Kasa-Vubu nevertheless confirmed his appointment. This climate of political deadlock, compounded by multiple tensions and personal rivalries, ultimately paved the way for the coup d'état of 24 November 1965.

Elections under the Second Republic

To break the political deadlock that paralyzed the country, the Armée nationale congolaise (ANC) intervened on 24 November 1965, sidelined civilian politicians, and granted General Mobutu Sese Seko full authority for a five-year period. All political activities were suspended, and existing parties were dissolved in favor of a single ruling party, the Popular Movement of the Revolution (Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution; MPR), officially established in 1967. Within this one-party framework, presidential and legislative elections were held in 1970. Mobutu was the only presidential candidate and was declared elected to a seven-year term beginning on 4 December 1970, reportedly receiving 10,131,669 votes. Legislative elections followed on 14 and 15 November 1970, with candidates appearing exclusively on the party's official list.

These elections were tightly controlled by the ruling party and presented as orderly, which led to the selection of disciplined party members loyal to the regime and committed to maintaining its authority. From that point onward, political life increasingly reflected the radicalization of the single-party system, which gradually merged with the state apparatus and became the country's sole institution. Power became progressively concentrated in the hands of the party leader, who was simultaneously head of state and portrayed as the "father of the nation". Subsequent elections were therefore conducted entirely within the framework of the party-state.

In 1982, under pressure from Western governments, in response to rebel incursions in Katanga, and following opposition from 13 parliamentarians, Ordinance-Law No. 82/006 of 25 February 1982 was enacted to reorganize the country's political, administrative, and territorial structure. This decentralization led to elections for zone commissioners (commissaires des zones), councillors, and People's Commissioners (commissaires du peuple) in newly defined constituencies. Candidates continued to be nominated through party-state lists, and the electoral process was supplemented by a system of appointment after results were announced. Victory at the polls was no longer sufficient; candidates were also required to demonstrate loyalty and active commitment to the leader. Elected officials could lose their mandates for acts of indiscipline. In 1984, a nationwide scientific population census was conducted, followed by a presidential election in which Mobutu, as the sole candidate, was re-elected with 99.98 percent of the vote. The last elections held in Zaire occurred in 1987 and concerned the Legislative Council, Provincial Assemblies, Rural Collectivities, and Urban Zones.

The 2001–2006 transitional period

Following several days of uncertainty and tension after the assassination of Laurent-Désiré Kabila, nicknamed M'Zee ("the wise one"), the provisional parliament opted for a dynastic succession and, on 24 January 2001, appointed Major General Joseph Kabila as president of the republic. At only 29 years of age, the new head of state initially governed under the supervision of a regency council in which "three cousins of his father were members". Joseph Kabila inherited a vast country fragmented into three conflict-ridden zones where state authority had largely collapsed, surviving mainly in Kinshasa. In his first address to the nation on 26 January 2001, then the youngest president in the world, Joseph Kabila pledged to liberalize the political system left by his father. He expressed appreciation toward France, reaffirmed historical ties with Belgium, and announced his intention to normalize relations with the new George W. Bush administration. Overall, early indications suggested continuity rather than rupture, with the regime of "Kabila Junior" appearing as an extension of that of "Kabila Senior", itself rooted in the legacy of Mobutu and, further back, that of King Leopold II. The most notable anticipated change following Laurent-Désiré Kabila's death was the possible gradual withdrawal of foreign troops under United Nations Security Council supervision. Despite these expectations, the country continued to be engulfed in ethnic conflicts, which accentuated the paradox of a state whose immense size had become a source of instability. To overcome the persistent legitimacy crisis and lay the foundations for national reconstruction, representatives of political parties and civil society convened within the framework of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue. This process culminated in the signing of the Global and Inclusive Agreement in Pretoria on 17 December 2002, which established a new political order grounded in a democratic constitution and aimed at enabling Congolese citizens to choose their leaders through "free, pluralistic, transparent, and credible elections". This agreement marked the beginning of the DRC's transition, formalized through a constitution drafted in accordance with the Sun City accords.

During the transition, governance was guided by two key reference texts, notably the Global and Inclusive Agreement, which set out the principles governing transitional institutions. Central among these principles was the equitable sharing of responsibilities among the various components of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue at all levels of the state. An annex to the Global and Inclusive Agreement specified the distribution of ministries and vice-ministries among the different factions, while institutional functioning was based on consensus, inclusiveness, and the avoidance of confrontation. To preserve institutional stability, key officials, including the President, the four Vice-Presidents, and the heads of the National Assembly and the Senate, remained in office throughout the transition.

The objectives of the transitional constitution included national reunification, pacification and reconstruction, restoration of territorial integrity, the creation of a unified and restructured national army, and the organization of democratic elections at all levels. The transition was scheduled to last 24 months, with a possible six-month extension renewable once if necessary. Executive power was exercised collectively, with the president at the head and ministries distributed among the four Vice-Presidents through thematic commissions: the Economic and Financial Commission led by Jean-Pierre Bemba, the Defense and Security Commission under Azarias Ruberwa, the Reconstruction and Development Commission headed by Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi, and the Sociocultural Commission chaired by Arthur Z'ahidi Ngoma. Through this arrangement, the country's three major political currents shared state leadership alongside numerous other groups that emerged from the conflict. Étienne Tshisekedi, the most prominent opposition leader, declined to take part, boycotting the partial elections organized by the non-armed opposition under the auspices of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) and therefore remained outside the transitional government. The transition formally ended with the proclamation of the Third Republic on 18 February 2006.

Elections under the Third Republic

The Third Republic officially began on 17 August 2006, following the promulgation of the electoral law and the allocation of parliamentary seats. The commission électorale de transition (CET) imposed a very tight electoral timetable on itself by scheduling the presidential and legislative elections for 28 November, which left only three months and eleven days for preparation. Although the constitutional deadline of 30 June marking the end of the transition had already passed, a minimum period of four months and twenty days following the publication of the electoral law, between 9 March and 30 July, was considered necessary. Voter participation in the 2006 presidential election reached 70.5 percent in the first round and 65.4 percent in the runoff.

A second round was required because none of the 33 presidential candidates "managed to obtain more than 50% of the total votes" held on 30 July 2006. The runoff therefore pitted the two candidates with the highest scores from the first round against each other. During this initial phase, the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) raised concerns about an alleged surplus of voter cards, estimating an excess of nearly 20 percent above the authorized number. The party claimed that these cards were distributed nationwide without proper notification to political parties and that over 1,100,000 voters' names had disappeared from the voters' register. Reports from the SADC Parliamentary Forum's election observation mission raised concerns about bias and electoral fraud within specific institutions. For example, teams stationed in Kinshasa constantly spoke of the problem of excess ballot papers. The Independent Electoral Commission (Commission Electorale Indépendante; CEI) had printed five million additional ballot papers beyond the authorized quota, which fueled public suspicion that the CET intended to manipulate the process or favor certain political parties. Violence was reported, notably in Mbuji-Mayi in Kasaï-Oriental, a stronghold of the UDPS, which had called for an election boycott. Electoral convoys were often attacked, and at least one vehicle transporting election materials was set on fire.

Despite these tensions, the candidate registration process proceeded smoothly, resulting in the validation of 33 presidential candidates and over 9,000 legislative candidates. Electoral law allowed dissatisfied candidates and parties to challenge results through the courts. The second round of the presidential election pitted incumbent President Joseph Kabila against Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba, while 13,474 candidates competed for 623 seats in 24 provincial assemblies. On 24 October 2006, millions of Congolese voters cast their ballots in 50,045 polling stations nationwide during the second and final round of the presidential election, held concurrently with provincial elections. Voter turnout patterns reinforced the credibility of the process, revealing strong support for Bemba in Kinshasa, Bas-Congo, Kasaï-Occidental, and Équateur, and for Kabila in Orientale, Katanga, South Kivu, North Kivu, and Maniema. On 20 August 2006, the CEI released provisional presidential and legislative results. According to these figures, 25,420,199 voters were registered, 17,931,238 participated, with 122,946 blank votes and 870,758 invalid ballots, resulting in 16,937,534 valid votes and a turnout rate of 70.54 percent.

By contrast, the elections held on 28 November 2011 were widely criticized, and Anderson Ntumba of the University of Lubumbashi described them as technically regular but lacking credibility. Observers cited systemic failures, post-electoral imposition, and insufficient democratic oversight. Initially, the CEI refused to publish partial presidential results, a stance the opposition interpreted as a lack of transparency. The Independent National Electoral Commission (Commission Électorale Nationale Indépendante; CENI) later released five partial provincial results for a "certain number of polling stations without specifying which territories or cities they corresponded to, and without even proclaiming the national total to which the different figures added up". Moreover, these results were never posted on the CENI website.

On 9 December 2011, CENI declared Joseph Kabila the winner of the 28 November presidential election. Opposition leader Étienne Tshisekedi immediately rejected the results and proclaimed himself president-elect, which then triggered violent incidents in Kinshasa, an opposition stronghold, and reviving fears that the DRC might slide into internal conflict. That same day, speaking on the France 24 television channel, he refused to appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice, stating: "This court is a private institution of Mr. Kabila. We cannot do them the honor of appealing to [the judges of the court]. That would be to recognize a certain legitimacy. I will never do that". Nevertheless, Kabila was credited with 48.95 percent of the vote against Tshisekedi's 32.33 percent, though these figures remained contested. Joseph Kabila was officially sworn in on 20 December 2011.

The 2016–2017 political transition

The political transition that began in 2017 was triggered by the authorities' failure to organize elections scheduled for the end of 2016. In response to this deadlock, a political agreement was reached between the ruling party and the opposition, which provided for elections in 2017 and the eventual departure of President Kabila. Under this arrangement, the government and opposition were to jointly oversee the country during the transitional period between the expiration of Kabila's mandate on 20 December 2016 and the election of his successor, initially expected by the end of 2017.

Despite the expiration of his constitutional term, Kabila remained in office throughout 2017, having governed since 2001. In the final hours of 2016, representatives of the presidential majority and opposition met in Kinshasa under the mediation of the National Episcopal Conference of the Congo (Conférence Épiscopale Nationale du Congo; CENCO) and signed a "global and inclusive agreement" governing the transition. This accord incorporated two key measures that effectively delayed the electoral process by more than a year: a comprehensive revision of the electoral register and the organization of three elections simultaneously. Although political negotiations postponed the elections from 2016 to late 2017, the CENI unilaterally announced a further one-year delay. Since 2011, CENI had consistently argued that elections could not be held without political consensus on critical issues such as the sequencing of polls, voter registration, and voting procedures.

From late 2017 onward, the electoral commission imposed a revised calendar and controversial technical choices, including a disputed voter register and the introduction of voting machines. On 5 November 2017, CENI effectively confirmed another postponement by publishing a new comprehensive electoral calendar, thirty-three months after the initial schedule. The new date of 23 December 2018 for the three combined elections appeared to reflect a fragile compromise, but it was again missed when CENI postponed the vote to 30 December 2018.

The 2018–2023 electoral process

The elections planned for 23 December 2018 were expected to mark the Democratic Republic of the Congo's first democratic transfer of power. The stakes were historic, as this third electoral cycle was intended to complete the peace process launched with the Sun City Agreement of 19 April 2002, which ended the Second Congo War and enabled the adoption of a new constitution and the establishment of democratic institutions. The 2018 elections, already delayed by two years, were meant to consolidate democracy by facilitating, for the first time since independence, a handover of power between an outgoing president and a newly elected successor. After seventeen years in office, Kabila was constitutionally barred from seeking another term.

Ultimately held on 30 December 2018, the presidential election took place alongside legislative and provincial polls. The campaign centered on three main candidates: Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, designated successor of Kabila; Félix Tshisekedi, son of longtime opposition leader Étienne Tshisekedi; and Martin Fayulu, the joint candidate of part of the opposition. According to provisional results, Félix Tshisekedi won with just over 38 percent of the vote, followed by Martin Fayulu with nearly 35 percent, while Shadary placed third with about 23 percent. The results were immediately disputed by Fayulu, and CENCO declared that they did not align with data collected by its 40,000 election observers. At the same time, legislative election results granted an overwhelming two-thirds majority to the outgoing ruling coalition, the Common Front for Congo, signaling a future cohabitation that many believed undermined the significance of the presidential alternation. The authorities were accused of engineering an arrangement in which Tshisekedi was allowed to win the presidency, while Kabila's camp retained control of key institutions through its dominance in parliament and provincial assemblies. This control also ensured influence over the Senate, where Kabila, as a senator for life, would continue to wield power.

In January 2019, after the dismissal of all legal challenges, the Constitutional Court confirmed Félix Tshisekedi's victory, and he was sworn in as president. He thus became the country's fifth head of state and the first to assume office through a peaceful transfer of power.

Tshisekedi was reelected with a large majority in December 2023, coming ahead of Moise Katumbi and Fayulu.

Upcoming elections

Elections of the 4th cycle (2023–2028)

Main article: 2023 Democratic Republic of the Congo general election, 2024 Democratic Republic of the Congo Senate election

Presidential

National Assembly

References

References

1. Ntumba, Anderson. (2019). "Ceni et crédibilité des résultats des élections en RDC". [[University of Lubumbashi]].
2. (4 April 2024). "Communique de presse N° 020/CENI/2024".
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5. (27 April 2024). "Ituri : La CENI reporte les élections sénatoriales prévues le 29 avril 2024". Le Potentiel.
6. (2 May 2024). "Sud-Kivu : Jean-Jacques Purusi élu Gouverneur au second tour". Le Potentiel.
7. (6 May 2024). "Communique de presse N° 032/CENI/2024".
8. (6 May 2024). "Communique de presse N° 033/CENI/2024".
9. (1 June 2024). "Communique de presse N° 043/CENI/2024".
10. (13 June 2024). "Communique de presse N° 044/CENI/2024".
11. (2 October 2024). "Les élections législatives nationales et provinciales à Masimanimba et Yakoma programmées au 15 décembre". [[Radio Okapi]].
12. (14 November 2024). "Réorganisation des législatives à Masimanimba et Yakoma : la campagne électorale est lancée". [[Radio Okapi]].
13. (13 April 2025). "Communique de presse N° 004/CENI/2025".