Congolese civil society groups and regional organisations including the African Union are planning to send thousands of observers to monitor polling stations across the Democratic Republic of the Congo ahead of Wednesday’s presidential election. Catholic and Protestant churches will also be deploying some 30,000 observers each. The observers are in charge of ensuring that the voting stations open on time, the voting equipment works and “monitoring the attitudes of agents from the electoral commission and their behaviour” as well as that of voters, says Reverend Eric Nsenga Nshimba, secretary-general of the Church of Christ in the Congo.
