Delay at the beginning of the elections and heavy rains mark the day of the presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo | World

According to Reuters, President Joseph Kabila, who has been in power since 2001, voted early in the morning in the capital, Kinshasa.

"My only concern is that we have a very heavy rain, so the voting time can be long and we hope the sky will stay clear," Kabila told reporters, wearing a dark blue suit. .

In the eastern city of Goma, where the weather was clear, a Reuters witness saw residents vote, but another polling station in the city was still closed 90 minutes after polling stations opened at 6 o'clock in the morning. local).

"Most of the voters here are angry," said Kayembe Mvita Dido, first among a dozen people in a polling center near Nyiragongo volcano.

"Some people do not even know how to use the voting machine," he said, citing a new electronic voting system, criticized by the opposition as vulnerable to fraud.

The streets of Kinshasa were flooded by a violent storm that cut electricity in two polling stations visited by Reuters, although this should not affect the machines whose batteries need to be charged.

Some voters also complained that they did not find their names on the lists of their polling stations.

L & # 39; The presidential election was scheduled to take place on 23 December but was postponed to a later date by the Electoral Commission of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

At a meeting with candidates on Thursday, the body declared "technically incapable" of organizing the vote.

The country is experiencing days of violence before the first presidential election of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 18 years.

In addition, a week ago, a fire destroyed the urns stored in a warehouse in the country's capital, Kinshasa. The suspect is that criminals set fire to the scene.

There are also reports of violence against journalists. According to the Congolese News site, a local radio reporter was reportedly "violently beaten" by supporters of the current president Joseph Kabila.

The plea should have occurred in 2016

The presidential election should have taken place in December 2016, the last year of President Joseph Kabila's term. However, the commission had said at the time that it could not hold the election due to "technical problems". Candidates complained about this week's postponement.

Martín Fayulu, candidate of the Lamuka opposition coalition ("Awake" in Lingala) even stated that "after more than two years of constitutional delay, a postponement is unjustifiable".

"The electoral commission and the illegitimate government of Mr. Kabila have had ample time to prepare for peaceful and credible elections," they said in a statement.