Congo’s electoral commission updates voter list ahead of regional elections

By SALEH MWANAMILONGO, Associated Press

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo’s national electoral commission has updated the country’s electoral list ahead of local and provincial elections later this year, the commission said.

Nearly 200,000 voters who had been omitted from 2011 elections were integrated into the new electoral register of more than 30 million people, said Flavien Misoni, executive secretary of the Independent National Electoral Commission, known as CENI. The 18-month operation cost about $30 million dollars, he said.

Commission spokesman Jean Pierre Kalamba said that the operation “was intended to reassure the public about the seriousness of the local and provincial elections” before they take place in October 2015.