Demonstration against election fraud in the DR Congo EP. 5-5
Absurdly,Demonstration against election fraud in the DR Congo
On September 29, 2018, Democratic Republic of Congo opposition leaders and thousands of supporters held a massive demonstration in the capital Kinshasa.
Moreover, They were protesting the introduction of an electronic voting system from South Korea’s Miru Systems. Flags and banners read “RIP (Rest In Peace) Voting Machine”.
[Fig. 1] Massive demonstration in the Kinshasa, DR Congo (Source from Al jazeera)
The DR Congo’s presidential election, which was scheduled to be held on December 23, 2018.
Indeed, It was postponed due to the use of Korean-made electronic voting machines.
Korean-made e-voting machines burned in the Congo
On December 23, 2018, the presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo was postponed. The DRC was scheduled to use Korean-made electronic voting machines.
At around 1 a.m. local time on December 13, a fire, believed to be arson, broke out in the warehouse of the electoral commission’s voting equipment in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC.
Kinshasa was storing 10,386 electronic voting machines for use in the election.
However, More than 8,000 e-voting machines and thousands of ballot boxes were destroyed.
[Fig. 2] Korean-made e-voting machines burned in the Congo (Source from Al Jazeera)
In addition to AFP, Dense clouds of black smoke were still visible over the city in the early morning hours.
On December 20, Reuters, AFP, and others reported.
“The DRC’s CENI announced that the presidential election will be postponed by 30 days.”
“They should replace more than 8,000 voting machines destroyed in a fire on December 13 and to print five million ballots.”
Consequently, DR Congo government has also banned election-related rallies for “security reasons.
“SIM cards” in Korean-made electronic voting machines have a dangerous function
The presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been postponed to December 30.
Therefore, opposition candidates demanded that the Congolese National Electoral Commission (CENI) deactivate “SIM cards” in electronic voting machines to prevent electronic transmission of vote results.
However, Congolese authorities had originally planned to hold the presidential election on the 23rd.
They have clashed with opposition parties and civil society organizations that oppose the use of Korean-made electronic voting machines for fear of fraud.
Without a “SIM card,” people cannot use calls and text messaging services, only emergency calls.
Particularly, The situation room cannot see the phone number of the caller. But only the IMEI of the device.
On December 25, seven opposition presidential candidates, including Martin Paulo, held a joint press conference in which they claimed that activated SIM cards could transmit the results of electronic voting.
At the time, CENI admitted that the SIM card was in the voting machine. And the presidential candidates asked telecom companies to disable this feature. (December 26, 2018, Reuters)
On December 24, CENI President Cornelou Nanga admitted in an interview with French media.
Especially, SIM cards were still present in electronic voting machines.
His excuse was as follows.
“According to the manual, the results are announced manually.”
“Then, the e-voting results are checked and verified against the manual results.”
“After that, they will be transmitted from the regional transmission center to the central election commission server.”
