Congo election delayed by 2 years pushed back another week

Democratic Republic of Congo's election board has postponed a presidential vote scheduled for Sunday by one week,until Dec. 30, after a fire destroyed voting materials.

After a meeting with candidates in the capital, the electoral commission (CENI) said it had not been able to provide sufficient ballot papers after a warehouse blaze last week destroyed much of the capital's election material.

"We cannot organize general elections without the province of Kinshasa, and without the Kinois voters,who represent 10 per cent of the electoral body," CENI president Corneille Nangaa told journalists.

The decision may stoke already high tensions after several government crackdowns on opposition rallies.

After the announcement, a crowd outside CENI headquarters started shouting in protest and were pushed back by police.

The election is meant to choose a successor to President Joseph Kabila, who is due to step down after 18 years in power, in what would be Congo's first democratic transition.

Kabila assumed the presidency after his father, Laurent Kabila, was assassinated in 2001.

An election was due to be held by the end of the 2016, but he stayed in power past the deadline. Security forces have killed dozens of people in the past two years demonstrating against Kabila's refusal to step down when his mandate officially expired in December 2016.

A deal was then brokered with the influential Catholic Church to hold elections by the end of 2017, but it fell apart when Congo's government said preparations would not be ready in time.

Western monitors not invited

Hundreds of university students took to the streets in Kinshasa on Thursday, protesting any delay to the vote.

The postponement decision caps a chaotic week, which saw more than 100 people killed in fights between rival ethnic groups in northwestern Congo and clashes between police and opposition supporters in Kinshasa.

Those protests erupted after Kinshasa's governor ordered a halt to campaigning over security fears.

Fire erupted last week at a Kinshasa warehouse, with the commission estimating it destroyed 80 per cent of voting machines in addition to ballot papers.

In addition to the general concerns about political repression and sectarian violence, the vote was also set to take place as a new outbreak of Ebola has killed over 300 people, in an unstable part of the country's northeast.

Campaigning had been due to end at midnight on Friday in what has boiled down to a race between Kabila's preferred successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, and two main challengers, Fayulu and Felix Tshisekedi.

Critics fearKabila would still retain power behind the scenes if Shadary wins.

Kabila, in interviews with international journalists in recent weeks, also didn't rule out a presidential run in the next elections in 2023.