Election Day in Congo

Elections for President and for 500 delegates to Parliament are underway in Congo.  I went to the voting place at the Bokonzo Primary School less than 200 yards from our home and took these pictures.

In the picture below, you see the white cardboard voting booths in the back of the room.  Once you have voted, you fold your ballot in half and put it in the appropriate ballot box.

Voting in Congo. Presidential ballots go in the blue box and Parliamentary ballots in the yellow box

The ballots will be counted separately so that the winner of the Presidential election can be announced next week.  The winners of the election for Parliament will not be announced until about mid-January.

Parliament ballot on L and Presidential ballot on R

People lined up outside the school to vote.

the Bokonzo Primary School was a voting station

Two of the voting stations at the school where in grass-roofed shelters.  Voters waited in the shade of the mango trees which is always nice and cool.

One of the voting booths was in the grass shelter

Everything I saw at the school was going orderly with few problems.  The main complication some of our employees had was finding their name on the list of registered voters so they knew what room to go into to vote.  After voting in the appropriate room, your name would be checked off the list and they would put black ink on your Left thumb.