Fire has swept through a warehouse belonging to the Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) with numerous voting materials for the upcoming 20 December 2023 General Elections destroyed in Bolobo territory of Mai-Ndombé Province.
On the evening of Wednesday 29 November, fire swept through the warehouse damaging great deal of voting materials including electronic voting devices among other valuables with the source of the fire still unknown.
Some of the valuables burnt in the inferno included 163 electronic voting devices from 2018, 136 voting booths, 39 RC kits 2022-2023, 108 external batteries Dev 2018, 165 internal batteries of electronic voting devices (DEV) 2023, 168 solar panels RC 2022-2023,”
Others include; “5 RC 2022-2023 awareness megaphones, 122 ballot boxes from 2018, 17 itel A18 RC 2022-2023 telephones, 13 Pova cartography techno telephones 2022, a complete RC 2018 kit, complete VSAR 2011 kit, 7 HP computers from the RC 2017, 16 tarpaulins of awareness 2023 and archives of the RC 2022-2023.”
With less than a month to the polls, this development has left the population of Bolobo’s participation in the upcoming elections into huge doubt with CENI already grappling to provide voting materials to several other areas in the DRC.
