Congolese presidential candidate blasts decision to close polls in opposition strongholds

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Leading Congolese presidential candidate Martin Fayulu says the country's outgoing president is tampering with the election to secure a win for his preferred successor.

CENI, the country's national electoral commission, closed polling stations in several opposition strongholds, barring an estimated one million voters from Sunday's long-delayed presidential election and sparking mass protests. 

President Joseph Kabila this week said the polls were closed as a precaution due to an Ebola outbreak and militia violence.

But Fayulu says the president is using CENI to bolster his preferred successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary.

Here is part of Fayulu's conversation with As It Happens guest host Helen Mann.

Do you feel confident at this point that Sunday's elections will go ahead and in a free and fair manner?

I just came out of a meeting with the electoral commission.

We have agreed to have the election this Sunday, but now the question is [will those] elections will be credible? I doubt, because CENI is not really ready to give us fair and credible elections, according to what we are seeing here.

Some areas of the country, they have suspended the election. 

The governments says that the postponement of the vote in the areas you mentioned is because of an outbreak of Ebola. They say it wouldn't be safe to allow the people in that region to go to the polls. What do you say to that?

This is not true. It's a false argument. Because we went there. I was there myself. We campaigned. They let people campaign.

Everybody was there, and currently, we have markets going on in those places, and church. People go to church. 

The real reason is because they have seen that their candidate is not welcome to those areas.

We are also hearing [from Reuters] that just two days before the vote, only 60 per cent of the election materials, particularly the tally sheets, have been delivered to polling stations. How is it that this election can go ahead as planned on Sunday if it doesn't have those materials?

That's the same question we asked CENI, but CENI pretended that they have delivered the ... election material. 

But we have evidence — and we gave those evidence to CENI — that in some areas they still don't have the electoral material.

How much does it put the election at risk in terms of its fairness and transparency?

It will be problem because people are waiting to vote and we'll have maybe half of the population or even 30 per cent, and then it will be difficult to see because they will choose those areas where they are very weak not to send the electoral material.

The allegation out there from your supporters is that outgoing President Kabila is doing all this through the electoral commission to support his preferred candidate and that, you know, this will be to his benefit. Are you willing to go as far as to say that this is rigged, this vote?

No, we will go to the vote. We will not boycott the vote.

But what you said is right. Kabila is trying to favour his candidate because that candidate is very weak. It will be himself in power.

The campaign has demonstrated that his candidate is so weak that by all means, he cannot win at all. He will not come even second.

In 2006 and 2011, the elections in your country saw violence on the streets. If people are unhappy with the outcome, if they are questioning whether it was a fair vote, do you have concerns that we will see people on the streets and the potential for more violence?

Yes, we have a real concern because if they just proclaim the result which doesn't tally with what the people have done, I think there is a risk to have people not to agree with the results.

That's why we continue to insist to CENI they have to be careful and to try the best to give the correct results.

If you lose, will you accept the results?

It's not a matter of accepting or not accepting. I will accept the result which is, you know, in accordance with what the people have done.

Written by Sheena Goodyear with files from Reuters. Interview produced by Chris Harbord. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.