Tens of thousands of people marched in Kinshasa on Saturday to demand the establishment of a depoliticized electoral commission at the call of the opposition, noted an AFP journalist.
The procession, flanked by dozens of police officers, shook around noon before crossing three municipalities in the center of Kinshasa, chanting slogans for the depoliticization of the Independent Electoral Commission (Céni).
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The unsuccessful December 2018 presidential candidate Martin Fayulu and former Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito led the procession.
"
We do not want a politicized Ceni
", one reads on a banner.
On another banner: "
Presidency of the Ceni: we do not want Denis Kadima
" whose name was proposed by six heads of religious denominations as president of the Ceni against the advice of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (Cenco) and Protestants (Church of Christ in Congo, ECC) who accuse him of corruption and proximity to President Félix Tshisekedi.
Misery and hunger
Along the way, protesters tore up at least one effigy of President Tshisekedi as well as a flag of his Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) party angering presidential party activists who tried to block the passage of the procession at the height of their party headquarters.
Very quickly, the police fired tear gas to disperse them, allowing the demonstrators to continue their march until the end, and to arrive almost two km from the People's Palace, seat of the Congolese Parliament.
Martin Fayulu accused the regime in place of having imposed misery and hunger on the Congolese, "
because plunged into corruption
".
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He added that "in the
event of a forced passage in the designation of Denis Kadima as president of the Ceni
", he will go to the seat of Parliament with his supporters "
to prevent the preparation of a new electoral fraud
".
A closed plenary session is underway in the National Assembly with a view to ratifying the minutes of designation of members of the Ceni by civil society and political parties, after several weeks of blockage caused by the refusal of the Cenco and the ECC to endorse Denis Kadima's name.