KINSHASA, Congo – Staring at a poster-sized ballot with 33 presidential choices, Musenga Matatunda cast her vote Sunday using political reasoning molded by a lifetime under dictatorship.
She picked the oldest one.
Even if he turns out to be corrupt, the 80-year-old politician won’t live long enough to cause much trouble, the tiny woman rationalized.
“At that age, people don’t have personal ambition,” she added. “They just want to serve.”
Across this Central African nation – formerly named Zaire, and known as the Belgian Congo until gaining independence in 1960 – millions turned out Sunday for the first democratic election in 46 years. Results are days or perhaps weeks away, but initial reports suggested turnout was heavy even though many walked four hours or more to reach polling stations.
The greatest test of Congo’s fragile order likely will come when results are announced. The country has experienced two major wars in the past decade that left an estimated 4 million people dead, mostly civilians killed by hunger and easily preventable diseases.
Hostility toward the incumbent, President Joseph Kabila, runs high in Kinshasa, the dense and unruly capital. His father, Laurent Kabila, took power in a bloody rebellion backed by neighboring Rwanda in 1997 and ruled ruthlessly until his assassination in 2001.
His son assumed the presidency immediately afterward.
In the years since, the government has provided little to ordinary Congolese, who complain about dramatic shortages of jobs, security, schools, roads, health care, electricity and drinking water despite the country’s vast mineral wealth.
Kabila is considered among the front-runners listed on a seven-page ballot, which has 33 candidates for president and more than 9,000 aspiring lawmakers.
The winner’s administration will replace the transitional government, which includes four vice presidents, among them another top presidential contender, former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba.
Many opposition supporters have already contended the election is rigged and threatened to riot if Kabila is named the winner.
If no presidential candidate wins a majority of votes, a runoff will be held between the top two finishers, likely in September.
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