Flood and röststrul – choice started in Congo Kinshasa

It is one of the most important elections in the country's history, but expectations have seldom been so low that for today's exercise in the Democratic republic of Congo (commonly called Congo Kinshasa to distinguish it from the neighbouring country in the west).

Despite a two-year delay is considered electoral body Ceni to be very ill-prepared and get the voters believe in a totally clean process.

in the dawn, but after an hour started to the reports on trilskande röstmaskiner pop up on social media. The electronic machines are supposed to facilitate the reporting of voices, but has become the subject of discussion between the government and the opposition.

In the city of Mbandaka, several machines have no batteries, and a machine should have gone on strike in the area of Nyiragongo outside Goma in the east. More reports of this kind will appear during Sunday.

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in the west and poured rain down in the morning with major flooding as a result, but it did not stop the president Joseph Kabila from the early vote, likely on regeringspartiets candidate Emmanuel Shadary who also voted early on the Sunday morning.

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after almost 18 years in power and the voters have primarily three candidates to take the position. Emmanuel Shadary, which is Kabila's own candidate to the successor, are being challenged by the two opposition politicians Felix Tshisekedi and Martin Fayulu. The latter has a strong advantage in the latest polls with 47 percent of the vote against Tshisekedis 24 per cent and 19 per cent for the Shadary.

the Choice can therefore lead to the first democratic transition of power ever in the Drc's 58-year history. It is an expensive and extremely complicated process in a country that has over 80 million inhabitants and is four times as large as France to the surface.

the electoral body Ceni claimed two years ago that a billion dollars – almost nine billion – were to keep the choice. In comparison, the cost to the Swedish parliamentary elections around 400 million.

more than 40 million registered voters to cast their votes in any of the 75,000 polling stations that are scattered on almost 22.000 different stations. A half a million polling officers have been hired for the purpose.

The logistical challenges are amplified in a country that has poor infrastructure and that are characterized by concern in a number of landsändar. Ten cargo aircraft and a passenger plane will assist the electoral body Ceni, as well as five transporthelikoptrar and two helicopters for the surveillance. On the ground, using the Ceni 285 major and 171 smaller trucks and 1.800 motorcycles, according to figures on the Cenis website.

Then, earlier it is clear that not all congolese will be able to vote, despite the build-up. In the cities of Beni and Butembo in the east, the choice has been postponed, and 1.2 million voters will therefore not be able to vote in the election.