With two days to go now, the local population is starting to show some signs of stress. With the return yesterday of Presidential candidate, vice-president and ex-warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba, masses of people gathered in the streets. According to "some guy I asked on the street," a group of Bemba's men were seen tearing down the election posters of other candidates. The photographer with our group was driving past some of these people, and was forced to drive over the poster of incumbent Joseph Kabila. Later in the day, likely in retaliation, Bemba's house was set on fire. We were driving through the downtown area when I noticed a massive plume of smoke ahead. when we approached we saw an amazing fire, and heard what sounded like gunfire. turns out Bemba's militia had an arms cache in his house, and his munitions were going off in the fire. Needless to say, we left the area quickly. Later in the day, also related to Bemba's return, a rally turned violent, and resulted in some looting and burning of cars and houses. We're not sure yet who is responsible, but at least one man is dead, and there are unconfirmed reports of another death, as well as a rape, as a result of the violence. Today we are looking out for more signs of violence, and being extremely cautious in out excursions. We have also cancelled our outing for the evening in the interest of security.
Earlier yesterday we did our preliminary election observer training, and we will be meeting with the independent electoral commission today. We have a final training on Saturday, right before the election.
Election day is likely to be a long one. We will be starting very early, as we have to be at the polling stations before 6:00am. The polls will close at 5:00pm, at which point we begin monitoring the count; the vote count is likely to last all night, and possibly into the next day, and I don't anticipate getting much sleep. As for security concerns at the polls, we can count on MONUC (the UN force), EUFOR (the EU force), and maybe the DRC Police or Presidential guard to be keeping a close eye on things. There are a fairly large number of international, as well as local observers, and we are hoping that this large presence contributes to limiting any potential violence at the polls. Of course, if things get hairy we are under no obligation to stick around and watch it, and will likely be whisked away quite quickly.
Thank you everyone who has been commenting on the blog, sharing it with others, and sending prayers! It is all very much appreciated!
à la prochaine!
-joel