A Simulacrum of Elections
On December 23, three days after the presidential election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), I received a call from Moïse Katumbi Chapwe, the highest-polling opposition candidate. “There has been massive fraud”, he told me. “They stole the vote”.
It was hard to disagree. The results were not out yet, but observers from across the country reported that voters were intimidated, polling stations attacked, and, perhaps most tellingly, voting machines installed in private houses and fed ballots marked with the name of the incumbent president, Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo. Videos circulated online showing soldiers firing at voters, polling stations ransacked, and a woman stripped of her clothes and beaten because she voted for Katumbi.… Seguir leyendo »