Walikale is one of those towns you won’t spot from the window of a plane.

Squeezed between rolling carpets of treetops, you might just detect a brown blot on a green canvas if you strain your eyes hard enough.

But beneath the mist and clouds, and among the rough jungle of towering trees, swamps, rivers and waterfalls, lies El Dorado incarnate: the district of cursed gold.

The territory of Walikale – a series of tropical forests, farmland, fresh water eco-systems and more than 100 villages – encapsulates the broader story of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) North Kivu province.

Walikale is important; it was reported in 2010, that 40 per cent of the entire revenue of North Kivu came from the Bisle tin mine that is located there.

But Walikale is not entirely unique.

It is but one chapter in a larger narrative, in which the ordinary residents of a region considered to contain some of the biggest untapped reserves of mineral resources in the world remain famished, cursed by the wealth of their surroundings.

The next stop 

Walikale is so remote, and the roads so bad, that it can take up to a week to get there by car, even though it is only a 45-minute flight from Goma, the capital of North Kivu.

Not that the territory has an airport – planes land on a local road, while UN helicopters use a football field to transport medical supplies, people, and curry powder for a garrison of Indian soldiers, known as the ‘Fab fourteenth’ living on a hill not far from the landing pad.

Indian troops make up most of the UN peacekeepers deployed to the DRC.

At the heart of the district of Walikale is the town of the same name – a hamlet of thatched-roofed mud huts and a red-face-bricked school ,flanked by a seemingly misplaced church, with its towering façade and tin top dwarfing the surrounding settlement.

The town centre, marked by an abandoned military truck, a flat top trailer and an overweight pygmy obelisk that locals refer to as the ‘Walikale monument’ is literally a half- a-kilometre-long hardened track.

Outside their huts, women sit on blocks of cement and breastfeed their infants while talking to neighbours. Along the road, young girls sell fruit from small bowls, while boys sell fuel in plastic bottles.

The sound of children singing hymns drifts through the broken windows of the school’s classrooms.

In the market adjacent to the main street, about 200 or so vendors sell dried fish, freshly cut beef, nuts and wild animal meat brought in from villages across the region.

The charred hands of baby monkeys sit among other produce on the market stalls.

If Goma is the last outpost - where businessmen meet in colonial era-styled hotels to make exchanges worth packets of gold, or to arrange for smugglers to slip across Lake Kivu, then Walikale might just be their next stop.

An infamous hell

For the international media, the Walikale district is famed for three things: the armed groups that operate in its forests; its unsurpassed deposits of minerals, including cassiterite (ore used to make tin), gold, diamonds and colten (metallic ore used in the tiny circuit boards of laptops and mobile phones); and an incident of mass rape – involving about 387 victims – that took place last year.

Ntabo Nteberi Sheka, a rebel leader and politician, is accused of being one of the directors of the rape and pillage of a series of villages in the territory.

Mass rape is used as a weapon of war in the DRC – with each generation indoctrinated into believing in its power to cultivate a sense of invincibility.

When villages are raided, and their young boys taken to become fighters, they too are taught to use this weapon.

Sheka shadows over the district’s forests in a way only a zealous rebel leader might: with local brew and an iron fist.

According to some insiders, nothing gets out of Walikale without Sheka allowing it.

Of course, today Sheka is in the spotlight, but there are long lines of rebels who have operated and continue to operate in the jungles, despite the presence of UN peacekeeping troops.

Experts working in the region, and the locals tormented by it, speak of the place with a mixture of distress and childlike enthusiasm.

It isn’t hard to understand why – it is a place that fascinates and repulses in equal measure.

The minerals in North Kivu, particularly in a remote haven like Walikale, where rebels and government forces are able to act with impunity, are an exacerbating factor in the continued insecurity that remains in the east.

The actors who have profited greatly from the mines refuse to leave, and when they do, have continued, in one form or another, to operate by proxy in the region.

While the failure of Joseph Kabila, the incumbent president, to build infrastructure and development has been the opposition’s main rallying cry during election campaigning, many in the east of the country are more concerned by their president’s perceived tacit business relations with Rwanda, which they believe allows places like Walikale to be plundered.

Meanwhile, the instability in the region and the presence of foreign militias gives Kabila’s foreign backers a reason to remain.

The triumph of greed

Word on the street is that Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC, is nothing without North Kivu; that just about everyone in the higher echelons of the political order are involved in the mining and export of minerals in the region, allowing a rebel like Sheka to exist, and even thrive.

Kabila banned the export of minerals for six months – from September 2010 to March 2011 – in an apparent attempt to clean up the industry.

But human rights observers say the ban only served to further militarise the illegal smuggling of minerals and did little to stave off the armed groups, while there has also been a failure to create programmes to regulate the industry.

Neither did it advance solutions to the continued pillage of the region’s forests and bio-diversity that has been a trend since King Leopold’s Free Congo State ravaged entire areas in the hunt for rubber in the 1890s.

Meanwhile, the Dodd-Frank law imposed by the US – designed to create transparency and end the trade in blood-minerals through the forced certification of minerals – only created new problems.

A weak administration, malnourished police force and ready-made black market meant that in a country unable to handle the certification process, official exports dried up, allowing smuggling to thrive.

In 2011, exports of cassiterite were down by 90 per cent.

But with US companies shunning the DRC, the leading buyer of these minerals, illicit or not, is none other than China.

The DRC is a complex web of interspersed politics, latent corruption, violence and geographical obscurity that often allows temporary greed to triumph over the aspirations of the ordinary.

The residents of Walikale may be impoverished, but human dignity is in no shortage here.

You see it in their daily struggles to cultivate their own gardens, build a life that is outside the insatiable search for quick riches, and in the dreams they have for their children.

But these efforts do not always translate into reality, particularly when the systematic tendency of those in power to manipulate a fragmented society into self-immolating acts of horror, remains.

(Al-Jazeera) – Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo - Confusion, corruption and chaos. This is how most have described Monday’s elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, following reports of clashes, rigging and stolen ballots in various parts of the country.

But in Goma, the capital of the volatile North Kivu province, the story seems to be a little different.

Residents admit the election process was deeply flawed and disorganised. Many polling stations failed to receive papers and equipment in time. But very few claim Monday’s poll in the city involved incidents of mass fraud and corruption.

As cries of corruption reach a crescendo and international observers plead for calm, it seems a little peculiar that a city in the east, flagged as one of the most unstable cities of the lot, would appear so together.

Al Jazeera’s Azad Essa spoke to a selection of residents from Goma on their take of the complex elections. This is their account of how election proceedings in their city.

I have come back here to the polling station to take a look at the results.

I cannot be sure if there was cheating but people did say there would be cheating during this election.

I was pleased with how the elections took place. It was disappointing to see how long the process took but I think  overall, I am happy with the outcome of the process.

It is difficult for me to speak about corruption because I didn’t see any incidents for myself.

The commission worked here, in this polling station, in a transparent manner. But let’s face it, we are just the common people of Congo; whatever the result, we will just have to accept it.

I cannot say there were incidents of fraud, though it was extremely disorganised from the process down to reading the print on the paper.

The elections of 2006 were better organised. It is disappointing that five years later, these elections were run so poorly.

We had problems in the city but in the rural areas, I wonder if we can say that we actually had an election.

People in Goma will respect the elections. I understand that people want change, but because results show [Vital] Kamerhe winning Goma, they might be disappointed when they realise he hasn’t performed the same throughout the country.

It’s not hard to think that everything is fraudulent in a place like this. It is a matter of expectation.

People were sure that there was going to be an issue. People here suffer a type of psychosis because the conditions make it so.

For instance, before the elections on Monday, people were saying the ink of the pens at polling stations could be removed from ballot sheets and that people should bring their own pens so ballots cannot be manipulated. This kind of thing naturally leads to paranoia and fighting.

Goma has escaped such allegations because Kamerhe is doing well and that was expected, so people are less suspicious.

People who have changed their mind about supporting [Joseph] Kabila and decided to vote for another party, have probably done so for a good reason. I don’t blame them.

But I, like so many of his supporters, think he was on the right track and needs more time to do what he needs to do for the DRC. This is why I will keep on supporting him.

More than anything else, I think it is important that all of us work for this country, and not resort to fighting because of disagreements.

We have to work as citizens of this country, to promote peace in this country. If someone wins or loses, we should be able to maintain unity.

People are free to offer their point of view, and I am not afraid to say that I support Kabila. Even Kamerhe himself, offered reasons for why he left Kabila’s government, and he remains a free man, to give his point of view and opinion. Everyone is free to offer their opinion in this country.

I was not involved in the process, but I heard on the radio that there had been some corruption, but personally, I didn’t see what happened inside offices.

If there was an office that did experience corruption and it is widely known, they ought to be arrested. For me, these elections have taken place and I am here to see how my candidate has fared so far so I have some idea of what the overall result might be for me.

I don’t think people can refute the results. Of course, they know what they saw but I didn’t see any cheating.

I think the results will demonstrate these elections were run in a transparent way.

Of course, problems and unrest in other towns and cities across the DRC will affect Goma, North Kivu and the whole country.

The president who will be elected will be proclaimed as the president of the whole country, not just president of Katanga or any other one region.

The president needs to rule the country and needs to be accepted by all citizens.

I voted for President Kabila because I remember where this country came from when I consider the stage it is at today. Kabila inherited a country, which was completely destroyed and he has done thing slowly … but things cannot be built overnight.

It is a process and people need to remember that.  I am confident Kabila can turn this country in the right direction. There have been developments and improvements. It has not been enough yet, but still.

Many women work in the fields and many remember how they were unable to work in the fields during the war. Kabila changed that.

Today, we can go to the fields to cultivate or find food because of him. Armed militias used to take our children as child soldiers and today we are not losing our children to militia. We associate Kabila with these improvements. We have to give him a chance.

Others have begun to support Kamerhe because they found him charming and he was able to say all the things that they needed to hear. Maybe it is because he is from the region. I am not sure if this is the way to choose a candidate. People should support leaders for the well being of the country.

I think it’s interesting that in 2006, our UDPS (of which presidential candidate Etienne Tshesekedi is president) denounced elections for the level of fraud, but [Vital] Kamerhe was at that point part of the majority and he didn’t say anything.

Now he knows he is going to lose, and he decides to raise the alarm.

In Goma, we were given some ballots two or three days before the election itself. In a normal country, this would not be possible. We took it to the UN and the police and CENI.

They even signed a document to say they received it. They say they found it on the street, and it is not my business how they got the ballot; the fact is that they had it.

The disorganisation of the elections had a purpose; it was meant to facilitate cheating. But people were vigilant, and so they picked up on it.  I would not say that it is paranoia; instead, it is the reality.

This fraud was real in other provinces and they probably wanted to cheat here as well, but they didn’t manage to do so. There could have been fraud, but it seems that enough was done to discourage it in Goma itself.

Outside Goma, there were many irregularities. For example, In Masisi, a commander of an army found that President Kabila was not elected at a polling station and he went on to burn the ballots.

Our people have matured and have developed new idea for how they want to lead their life, and they feel that they are able to take things in their hands and give power to whomever they want. But even with the attempts to cheat, Kabila will not win, because he will lose the elections in the east which brought him to power in 2006. But if he does win, we will force him to leave by all means.

(Al-Jazeera) – Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo - Voting has opened across the DRC and thousands of voters are expected to return to polling stations to cast their ballot after not being able to do so on Monday.

The National Independent Electoral Commission (CINA) announced late on Monday evening that voting would be open on Tuesday to deal with those who were unable to vote due to long queues until close of polls. In precincts where ballot materials had arrived on time, vote counting was underway.

Almost 32 million Congolese travelled to tens of thousands of polls across the country to vote in an election marred byreports of clashes, and reports of vote rigging.

International observers said they had stumbled upon what may be a case of ballot stuffing in the country’s east.

Rain lashed down on voters in Kinshasa as well, slowing the influx of voters.

But in Goma, the capital of North Kivu, touted as among the most volatile regions in the country, voting took place, mostly in perfect weather, mostly without incident.

The usually bustling city almost came to a standstill as hundreds of thousands descended on polling stations across the city, arriving on foot or motorbike taxis with hundreds already in zigzag queues outside polling stations.

Queues waited outside school classrooms as Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) ran final preparations to set up the voting process. By early morning, budding entrepreneurs arrived with freshly picked bananas, cakes and nuts to sell to the thousands set for a long day in the sun.

Polls opened slightly late and moved slowly as voters, electoral officials, party member observation teams and independent observers quickly overcrowded the small school complexes hosting the vote.

Voters optimistic

Despite the delays, voters remained optimistic about the role of the ballot in changing their reality.

“I was extremely excited to vote for my candidate,” Christina Mobwana, 29, said as she stuck out her inked finger to illustrate she had just cast her ballot.

“We are voting because we want the current reality to change and adjust,” Mobwana told Al Jazeera. Change, peace and development are recurring themes among voters in Goma.

Residents say that the city lacks basic services and they are done waiting for Joseph Kabila, the incumbent president, to deliver on promises made five years ago.

They say they want the city to normalise, for primary schooling to be free, health services to improve and a city that functions.

Stories abound of continuous corruption, unpaid wages, and that that half of Goma battles to access electricity, while one third of residents lack access to running water.

“In 2006, we voted for Kabila who made promises to us, which he didn’t keep. Now we are saying, let’s try another candidate,” Francine Butodu, 26, on her way to the polls late on Monday afternoon said.

If the candidate fails, they will replace him as well, Butodu says.

As voters continued to stream in during the day, those departing the polling stations on trucks and mini busses chanted as they drove by pedestrians lifting either three fingers, indicating support for Kabila or all five fingers for Vital Kamerhe, the most popular presidential candidate in east,  based on both candidate’s numerical position on the ballot sheet.

Pedestrians mostly chanted back, with friendly banter as five fingers of a pedestrian faced off with three fingers of a passing commuter.

Support for Kamerhe in the east has risen exponentially, though most supporters admit that they are mostly in opposition to Kabila reelection.

Allegations of Fraud

CINA’s incompetence and perceived linkages with the ruling Kabila has ordinarily raised suspicions of mismanagement and corruption, so much so that many locals allege that a Kabila victory will essentially mean electoral fraud.

Manegabe says that if Kabila wins, the DRC country will burn.”The opposition failed to unite; we have plurality, and we know that this is a problem. But the existing power cannot win this election,” Bienfait Manegabe, a lawyer and candidate in the national legislature told Al Jazeera.

“No one is ready to hear that Kabila will be reelected. If he wins, this country will fragment, and break up,” he says resolutely.

But Berchmans Ndumuago, the president of the polling station complex Kizito, a medical school in Goma, said that his electoral team experienced few problems and that there was no possibility of rigging.

“The way they walked in, marked the ballot sheet and the way they walked out, is how it is done,” Ndumuago said in response to the possibility of allegations of fraud at the polls.

But Xayita Mxolisi, Southern African Development Community electoral official, said that based on their observations in Goma on Monday, the voting process was free, and when the counting begins, they will ascertain whether the entire process was transparent and fair.

“There was a misunderstanding at one polling station earlier in the day, but that was resolved within a half hour, and from what we observed, the level of violence was almost null and the fact that people are still standing here, waiting in queues as stations are meant to close, suggests that there has been no intimidation or compulsion.

“I can’t comment about other other areas, but I can confidently say that elections in this area, was free,” Mxolisi told Al Jazeera.

“Now it is essentially a case of the losing party’s ability to accept defeat,” he added.

Voting continued even after sunset on Monday until CINA ordered the closure of polls and the extension of voting into Tuesday.

(Al-Jazeera) -Flashes of lightning illuminate Lake Kivu as thunder crackles above. The storm causes the lights to trip and disrupts the internet connection at our place of rest, the Ihusi Hotel.

The hotel, which overlooks the lake, is a meeting place – or hunting ground – for UN types, election observers, haughty journalists, as well as certain undesirables.

UN cars line the parking lot. French-speaking receptionists ignore requests made in Queen’s English and poll monitors insist on parading around in their election observer vests (Can sipping cocktails at the bar could ever be free or fair?

The road from the Rwandan border into Goma is bustling with activity and the construction sites lining it suggest the city is undergoing a facelift.

But when the neatly tarmacked road ends, another Goma presents itself in the form of the gigantic BDGL roundabout. On the scarred island in the middle, children kick a football around in the dirt, while others loiter about looking utterly bored.

A donkey wrapped in the flag of a local candidate running in the legislative elections is taunted and petted by passers-by.

Conflicting scenes

A twist in the road leads to another roundabout. This one has a golden chikudu at the centre of the island and is flanked by a well-kept garden. People wander over to take a snap of themselves beside the golden replica of the iconic wooden bicycle.

These conflicting scenes tell a tangled tale of destruction, development and electoral farce.

Craters or potholes appear in clusters on the roads, but there are also ample signs that improvement is under way.

Men in orange vests work on the tattered roads and, by night, street poles light up the city centre, providing a sense of urban normalcy.

“These improvements are just an electoral farce,” I am told by the sceptics, while Joseph Kabila loyalists shoot back: “These promises are a work in progress”.

Both sides, of course, are somewhat right, though you might hear stories of a third force behind most things in Goma. If you are into conspiracy theories, the road works are a gift from Rwanda to Kabila.

Indeed, conspiracy theory is a commodity this town is scarcely short of.

Volcano beneath

Goma is ambivalent; there are only signs of a regularity.  But you do get a sense that Goma is just the outer shell of a volcano boiling beneath the surface. And I am not just talking about the region’s geological features.

Goma does not have devastated buildings riddled with bullet holes, unexploded mines spread across the main road or one-legged characters smoking weed and selling blood diamonds on street corners.

But it is one of the main thoroughfares for blood-stained minerals from Bukavu, Walikale or Masisi, en route to the Western world via Kigali, Kampala and Nairobi.

Although Goma was at the centre of a tug-of-war between more than 20 armed groups and national armies, a lot of the trouble occurred on the outskirts, in smaller towns and villages, and in the forests.

Residents say that some of the best development took place after the Virunga National Park’s Mount Nyiragongo erupted and drowned the city in two metres of molten lava in 2002.

On the road to Rutshuru, close to the airport, evidence of lava lays strewn beside the road in the form of huge charred boulders. In the distance, the guilty volcano sits idle, blowing circles of smoke into the clouds.

Global village

At its best, Goma is a spectacular global village of humanitarian workers seeking to perform a miracle in a town fractured by years of instability.

At its worst, it is the last outpost of civilisation for opportunists, diamond merchants and mining magnates before they hop into propeller planes and head into the vast jungle in search of treasure.

I am still trying to decide whether I believe there is a difference.

In the town, dirty UN trucks filled with blue-helmeted peacekeepers sway and bounce as they pass.

The clearly branded 4x4s belonging to the NGOs trundle by and, until late last night, flatbed trucks fully equipped with loud speakers and slogan-shouting dancing supporters crisscross the city.

Across Goma, posters cling awkwardly to just about anything worth holding on to: they are wrapped around lampposts, broken down vehicles, toothpaste billboards and hung between street poles.

The sense that an event is about to take place is palpable. That it is an election is also clear.

Residents will tell you that since supporting Kabila vocally in 2006, it has just been one broken promise after another. Some allege that even basic services have deteriorated and it is past time for the town to stop looking like a complete mess.

This is a city holding its breath for change.

(Al-Jazeera) – Merely weeks before the elections in the DRC, international organisations had warned that the province of North Kivu in Eastern DRC was susceptible to pre-electoral violence as political instability mounted in the region.

At the heart of North Kivu is the capital of Goma, a city bordering Rwanda and one that would struggle to escape any developing conflict in the province.

In spite of clashes in Kinshasa over the weekend, and violence in Lubumbashi on Monday, Goma remained calm and mostly incident-free.

There are murmurs of rigging, missing ballot sheets, absent names from voter rolls and a possible backlash in days to come – pending results that fail to match the aspirations of the majority.

Yet on Monday, Goma seemed like a city determined to bury its demons, despite poor organisation, miscommunication between electoral officials and searing midday heat.

1) Many left home before dawn and had started lining up in queues by the time the sun was up [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

2) The Independent Electoral Commission was mostly unprepared for crowds that had already gathering outside polling centers [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

3) The polls took some time to begin but hundreds wasted no time gathering rapidly in polling stations across Goma [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

4) Voters came with their families and were prepared for a long day in the sun [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

5) The DRC presidential ballot sheet - the most talked about slip of paper south of the equator [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

6) By midday, crowds had multiplied and soon enough crowds were larger than the space available in the polling complex [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

7) Outside polling stations, budding entrepreneurs brought supplies to energise the electorate [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

8) It is difficult to quantify what this vote means to millions of Congolese desperate for a better life [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

9) Much of Goma remained empty as hundreds of thousands of its residents were back at school, casting their ballots [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

10) Predictably, scuffles broke out at certain polling stations as thousands became frustrated at the slow pace of turnover [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

11) Many registered voters were left off the voting roll and most returned home without voting [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

12) Voters continued to flock to stations throughout the day, with some stations forced to operate beyond 7pm [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

13) The next phase has already begun though CENI has announced that voting will continue [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

(Al-Jazeera) – Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo - That the Democratic Republic of Congo is still a fractured society, struggling with poverty, insecurity and state fragility, having emerged out of civil war almost a decade ago, is no secret.

But international media often fail to move past narratives of death and destruction in reporting or explaining the DRC. With the country in the spotlight as its citizens vote in presidential and parliamentary elections on Monday, allegations of fraud, logistical delays, and clashes between rival parties have come to the fore.

Little, however, has been said about how the media continues to cover the country, the role of civil society and the challenges it faces, and why the DRC – the lowest-ranked country in the UN Human Development Index – remains in the state it is.

Ahead of Monday’s vote, Al Jazeera’s Azad Essa spoke to Thomas D’Aquin Muiti, chairperson of the North Kivu chapter of Civil Society, a DRC-based NGO, about media representation, civil society and the state of democracy in the Congo.

When the international media reports on the Democratic Republic of Congo, it usually revolves around three things: Kabila, mass rapes and armed groups. What are we missing as journalists in telling the story of this country?

Muiti: Firstly, the international media needs to realise that apart from Kabila, gender violence and armed groups, Congolese people are living.

There are Congolese who are surviving and should be treated as belonging to the large world community. Secondly, Congo does not exist without its relations and links with the surrounding countries. And thirdly, beyond the Kabilas [Joseph Kabila, the current president, and his murdered father and predecessor, Laurent Kabila], the mass rapes and armed groups, there are social actors who are trying to rebuild Congolese society.

I am not saying that we should deny the problems, [instead] it is about acknowledging that we are also survivors and right now, we are going to act, and vote for Kabila or against him.

Is the international community to blame for this one-dimensional view of the DRC, when it is such a massively complicated story?

Muiti: I don’t think we should blame the world. From what I understand, the first steps towards improving this place should be taken by Congolese themselves.

If nothing is being done, then it means that we aren’t willing to do so. It would be a mistake to forget the effort the world has made in the DRC. I always say that there is a problem of leadership and representativeness … and of the Congolese people not taking enough pride in ourselves.

We are still too caught up with tribal issues, regional issues, ethnic issues – and this is why we remain so parochial, even restricted, by a blinkered view of the world. This is one of the major problems and the day we become open to the world, the world will be open to us and things will change for the better.

To offer an example, our wealthy elite would rather invest in Belgium, France or South Africa, rather than in this country and this is a major problem hindering our development. We cannot say that all Congolese are poor. We have rich countrymen, but they do not bring their contribution back to the country. Instead of being investors in this country they focus on the outside. And this country remains as it is.

And when you say that the media focuses on Kabila, gender violence and armed groups – consider that two out of these three things are related to insecurity – which creates a vicious cycle that would naturally scare off potential investors in building this country.

After enduring colonisation, a series of dictatorships and then two horrific wars, the DRC remains a fractured society. Is this country ready for “civil society” or does it require a strong-arm leader to unify the country first?

Muiti: An independent democracy needs the following: institutions, strong policies to stabilise these institutions, and in this particular context, we need the republican army, a police force that is civilised and a good intelligence service.

These would allow the leadership to be well set, else you would create a power base that is very fragile.

When we bring up the point made in your first question regarding Kabila, sexual violence and armed groups again we realise that a country that is poorly built with a weak administration will lead to the rise of parallel power structures, allowing things like armed groups to take charge of different areas.

This is now happening, and there are police officers leaving the force to join armed militia groups. Without institutions, administrative power remains fragile.

Has Kabila’s government allowed for the creation of a vibrant civil society?

Muiti: He has neither promoted nor prevented civil society from existing. It is something that is beyond his mind because he cannot imagine that a civil society can exist and he would not allow for something to become a counterweight to his power.

Yet Civil Society is a privileged partner in this country. We do exist. And the government has given us permission to function as a civilian organisation. This characterises the potential partnership between civil society and government. When the government has failed, it is civil society which can build schools and health centres.

Was Civil Society consulted when Kabila proposed an amendment earlier this year which would remove from the constitution a clause that a candidate needs to win a minimum of 51 per cent to avoid a runoff to the elections?

Muiti: Civil Society was not consulted and if it had been forwarded for a referendum, it would not have been allowed. In North Kivu, a petition was sent to Kinshasa, with 100,000 signatories, saying that we did not agree with the proposal. But the new law came into effect regardless since we were not part of the process.

We later did a proper analysis of the political climate and realised that Kabila had in effect put himself at a disadvantage. If the opposition unified, and produced one candidate as a challenger to Kabila, it would have meant that he could have been toppled quite easily.

But the opposition was unable to unify. Does this mean that the opposition has potentially missed an opportunity to topple Kabila?

Muiti: I can’t say that they have lost an opportunity, but yes, Kabila is now the favourite to win these elections. And again, this comes back to my original point that we have a problem with our leadership.

If opposition parties had formed a united front, they would have certainly won this election. They failed to recognise the opportunity presented to them. But it is worth mentioning that our politics are complicated, and Kabila might have even created some of these candidates running in these elections.

Finally, for someone looking into the DRC as the country holds these elections, how would you rate the level of democratic culture in your country?

Muiti: We have to consider that we have taken a step, and all journeys need a first step.

In our case, this first step was freedom of speech and this has developed and has since moved into selecting our representatives. Even though holding elections does not automatically translate into “a democracy” as such, it is however one of the markers that demonstrate we are moving towards ‘a democracy’. But there is still a fair way to go before we get “there”.

But I must add that there are many people who have been left out, especially women. If we talk about democracy and consider the representation and participation of women, then a “democracy” is still very far from reality. If we still talk about ourselves on the basis of ethnicity and tribes, rather than as Congolese citizens, and do not apply the law and allow impunity to exist, then we cannot consider ourselves a “democracy”.

I believe that we have just made the first step on a journey of a thousand steps that we still have to cross.

(Al-Jazeera) -The eastern DRC was flagged for violence during the election period due to the proximity of armed groups and incessant political instability, but the region has remained mostly calm throughout the pre-election build-up.

Poor road networks and wet weather in the remote corner of the DRC have posed a bigger challenge than the security threat.

Election officials say that it was a struggle, but all measures are now in place for the poll. Yet the jury is still out on whether this region of the country – blessed with immense mineral wealth under the shade of spectacular rain forests – will hold a free and fair election.

1) Preparations for the DRC’s elections have been anything but a swanky affair [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

2) Etienne Tshesekedi might enjoy support in his stronghold Kinshasa, but in the east, he is not considered a frontrunner [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

3) Over the past week, the UN has been in a race against time and bad weather to deliver materials across the country [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

4) Poor infrastructure make traveling through the vast expanse of this spectacular country extremely time consuming and difficult [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

5) The road to the Goma airport is a bustling sandy track of hawkers, lava and the heavy hums of cargo planes [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

6) Tell-tale signs of insecurity and destruction are sprinkled all across the towns and villages in North Kivu [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

7) Goma residents insist that the city remains a mess because of the inaction of the Kabila administration [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

Women make up only 12 per cent of the 19,000 candidates running for the national legislature [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

9) Vital Kamerhe, former ally of Joseph Kabila, enjoys emphatic support in the east [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

10) Minerals, rebel leaders and infinite mystery lie under a sheet of mist around Walikale [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

11) Like all developing countries, security at polling stations across the expanse of the country will be inconsistent [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

12) Goma’s colonial-era hotels are peppered with journalists and international observers covering the elections [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

13) Parts of Goma seem as if they have lacked an administration for years [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

14) Many residents are cynical, saying that the few recent improvements in Goma are election-related [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

15) Eastern Congolese are hoping that Monday’s poll will transform their life and city [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

(Al-Jazeera) -Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo - Nyirandatuje Dorothee was harvesting her fields when an invasion of her village in the eastern DRC province of North Kivu by an armed mob found her caught in the crossfire.

With the rest of her family in different parts of the village, she grabbed three grandchildren in closest proximity to her, carried one on her back and ran away.

Dorothee found shelter with others who escaped similar incidents of violence, and a week later she ended up at an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in the Rutshuru district, known as the Kiwanja camp, only 10km to 15km away from her home. Meanwhile, her sons and daughters managed to escape into Uganda.

That was back in 2009.

Today, Dorothee is still living in the same camp and is one of 75,000 IDPs sheltering in UN camps in North Kivu.

After the 1998 to 2003 Second Congo war officially ended with the creation of a transitional government, many of the 3.4 million people displaced as a result of the conflict returned home, according to the International Displacement Monitoring Centre.

But displacement continued in the eastern DRC, as government troops battled armed groups based in the forests along the borders with Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.

When the Congolese army began its offensive against the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) in late 2008, thousands of families were forced to flee their homes, resulting in displacements into Uganda, Rwanda and within North Kivu province itself.

Waiting for peace

While about 2,800 people returned to their homes in Rutshuru in 2010, as security improved, clashes in 2011 between Congolese armed forces (FARDC) and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) resulted in yet another scattering across the region.

Many who had attempted to return home were forced to seek protection at existing IDP camps or to create new ones.

At the Kiwanja camp in Rutshuru, a second spontaneous shelter sprung up, adjacent to the first one that had mushroomed in 2008.

The camps, made up of igloo-shaped huts with mud walls, patched by wooden sticks, dried palm leaves and UNHCR sheets for shelter, is home to more than 2,000 people living in squalid conditions, simply too afraid to return home.

Dorothee is one of the “residents” of the old camp who is refusing to return until she is certain it is safe enough to do so.

“After I left [my home], my children left Uganda and it took me seven months to find one of my grandchildren … I am waiting for peace so we can return,” she says.

Her frustration and refusal to leave resonates with others living in the camp.

Jean Marie Maheshe escaped from his village Mokoka with his wife and 12 children in 2008, when fighting continued in the area for more than a week.

He says that living conditions in the camp have left him at the mercy of employers, and has also made his wife at risk from sexual predators.

“We are living as if we are still living in the jungle,” he says.

‘Difficult sight’

Simplice Kpanji, a UNHCR official based in Goma, says that the situation in the IDP camps is “a difficult sight, but we continue to monitor and the situation is calm for the time being”.

“The crucial thing is that they feel safe here but they want to get back to their normal lives,” Kpanji says.

The UN says it aims to find durable solutions for the displaced as a matter of course.

Dirk Jan Kock, director of the NGO Search for Common Ground (SFCG), says this is a crucial step towards successfully transforming Congolese society.

“Almost two million people are displaced in the DRC - and this means that people have a fear to go home … and yes, it is mainly in rural areas, and in areas where rebel armed groups operate,” he tells Al Jazeera from the capital, Kinshasa.

“But the problem does call for us to address underlying issues that continue to create this displacement in the first place.

“These underlying issues, in a place like North Kivu, usually involve unresolved issues like citizenship, conflict over land and resources.”

Similarly, Celine Schmitt, UNHCR’s external relations officer, based in Kinshasa, says that despite the fact that the number of camps was reduced from 42 to 31 between 2010 and 2011, renewed fighting has created a volatile situation promulgating new areas of instability in the North Kivu region.

“Some areas that were considered safe in 2010 are now again affected by conflict,” she says.

But it is not just North Kivu that has suffered upheavals. According to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 123,000 people were displaced across the DRC in the first quarter of 2011 alone.

Elections awaited

Kpanji says most IDPs are hoping that this year’s elections will finally facilitate their return home.

“They see the elections as a kind of solution for gaining peace,” he says.

Mujambere Rahema, who was displaced in November 2009 from the village of Katiguru, east of Kiwanja and close to the border with Uganda, agrees that ”voting might just be the only way home”.

According to a representative of the old Kiwanja camp, “everyone is voting”.

Jean Marie Maheshe says ”some candidates have come here asking for us to vote … they give nothing, but they want our vote”.

But he adds that in spite of these disappointments, including how little improvement has been made since the 2006 elections, “as a Congolese, we have to vote”.

Nyirandatuje Dorothe sits on a tiny wooden stool, next to her igloo-shaped hut and smiles, even during the painful parts, as she shares her story.

But she frowns when asked why she still trusts the system, the leadership, and the ability of the ballot to improve her life, and get her back to her farm.

“It’s the only option I have,” she says.

(Al-Jazeera) – Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo - In the lead up to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s second general election since independence in 1960, most analysts have raised the alarm over poor logistical arrangements as well as significant security concerns, due to the continued presence of armed groups in the eastern parts of the country.

Nevertheless, many ordinary citizens of the DRC are looking forward to the elections.

For many, the elections offer a rare opportunity to play a role in who should govern the country, and direct the next phase of their fragile democracy’s development.

Al Jazeera’s Azad Essa speaks to residents of Goma and Walikale, both in the North Kivu province in the eastern DRC about why these elections means so much to them.

Photo by Azad Essa/Al Jazeera

First of all it is our right as a citizen to vote. This election could change our future and is a chance for the people to shift the social policy of this country.

I know that other African elections have gone wrong, but we Africans always get a sense that western powers or other international actors are interfering for their own goals, and this is why things usually do not improve.

Of course, ballots are sometimes interfered with and it is difficult to trust results.

When we voted in 2006, it was the first time for [many] of us, and we did not understand how the process worked. After this experience, we realise we have the tools and that it is time to change the government and I am hopeful that Mr [Vital] Kamerhe can challenge our current president [Joseph Kabila].

I am optimistic that Kamerhe [if he wins] can turn things around.

Photo by Azad Essa/Al Jazeera

I am very excited that these elections are taking place. I am excited at the prospect of choosing a new president and also because it reminds the current president that he cannot simply continue running the country.

As human beings, we need change. Consider this road … I am running my business here and we need this road to be fixed because there is too much dust and it affects my business. This is why we need these elections.

I voted in 2006, but I don’t see any change since then in Goma. There have been some improvements security-wise, but there have been no changes to the city. It’s time we found a new president.

And we need to vote, because we hope that the new president will bring the [necessary] change.  [But] I can’t say who is going to win … the polls will tell us that.

Photo by Azad Essa/Al Jazeera

There have been changes and development in the country since Joseph Kabila became president. The war ended and there has been stability for some time.

Look around, roads are being rebuilt, there are now street lights along the roads – and there are a number of projects – like the one near the border – these are some of things that have happened. Look at the projects and developments in Kinshasa. Things have become better … even DRC’s football clubs are beginning to win competitions again.

The elections are important to me because if new jobs are created, I might be lucky enough to get one myself. I will be voting for our current president.

Photo by Azad Essa/Al Jazeera

I am working as a shop owner here, and there is a lot of insecurity in Walikale. The fighting happens in the forest but my business has been robbed, and the business is not doing well. I have owned this shop for three years now and I can say that when people do not have jobs, there are very few who can afford to buy anything.

This is a difficult country to live in, and I am looking forward to voting. Perhaps the new leaders will address unemployment and improve our lives.

It is good that it is up to the people to select the next leader and I am hopeful that it will be the right person.

Photo by Azad Essa/Al Jazeera

Of course I am excited about the elections, because it is an obligation for every citizen to vote for the leader of this country.

From the first election [in 2006] up to now, there have been developments and changes. Security has since improved. And after these elections, we are hoping that our leaders will create employment for all of us in the DRC.

As leaders’ mandates come to an end, it is up to us to choose the next one. It is a case of trust … and I trust that they will unite the country peacefully. And yes, not many things have changed, but it was difficult to change so many things in just one term.

Photo by Azad Essa/Al Jazeera

I collect the daily rent from all of these vendors in this market. Every day, there are about 200-220 vendors selling beans, beef, wild animal meat (monkey), nuts, vegetables, dried fish and other food items. This market is 20 years old.

The elections in 2006 improved the number of goods in this market because goods could be transported from other villages, where so much of the food comes from, because security improved.

The market is thriving; it is busy. But when there are fights in the forests, goods don’t arrive. Items like onions and groundnuts come from villages that travel a distance to get here. This does not happen so often any more, but when it does, the market suffers.

If you look at this market, the stalls are made of wood and the roofs have leaves.

My dream would be to develop this market, build proper shelters, remove these leaves, and improve these roads, because when it rains, it is hard to walk and goods are damaged. This is what I want from these elections.

(Al-Jazeera)- Walikale. Democratic Republic of Congo - A national assembly candidate charged with organising the mass rape of 387 people has staged a campaign rally in the eastern Congolese town of Walikale.

Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, running for one of two seats in the Walikale district of the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), held the rally on Thursday in full view of police, the Congolese army and within three kilometres of a UN peacekeeping base.

The DRC is scheduled to hold its second presidential and legislative election since 1960 on November 28.

Sheka leads a faction of the Mai Mai armed group operating in the surrounding rainforest and an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity has been issued by Congolese prosecutors over his alleged involvement in the mass rapes across 13 villages in the Walikale district in mid 2010.

Standing on an abandoned flat bed trailer lying in the centre of the town, and dressed in blue military-style fatigues, aviator sunglasses and a green straw hat, Sheka told Al Jazeera that he was not a military commander, but a politician, trying to protect the interests of his people.

“If I am guilty of all of these [rape] crimes, why then are all these people here to support me?” he asked, standing between amid a phlanx of bodyguards.

Sheka, when probed about the probability of arrest, said that “the people” would come to his rescue and defend him in the event of authorities acting on the warrant.

“Just you try it [arrest me] and these crowds will beat you,” he said

‘Outrageous’

Human rights groups have condemned Sheka’s participation in this year’s election and called for his immediate arrest.

Anneke van Woudenberg from Human Rights Watch told Al Jazeera that it was “outrageous that Sheka could simply walk into Walikale in full view of the police and hold a rally”.

Van Woudenberg said that the very fact that Sheka is standing in the elections with such severe charges lodged against him, brings together the vast myriad of problems facing the DRC, including impunity, blood minerals, the proliferation of weapons and gender violence.

Sheka might just be one of 19,000 candidates vying for 500 legislative seats, but his inclusion is symbolic of the scant regard for the rule of law.

“His participation in the elections and continued freedoms do little to end impunity and won’t bring peace to the country,” she said.

Sheka was named in a UN report released in July 2011 that documented the rapes of at least 387 civilians in a devastating rampage of violence between July 30 and August 2, 2010. The UN alleges that Sheka’s Mail Mai faction were one of three armed groups directly involved and Sheka was one of the leaders with command responsibility.

Support

The crowd took over the city centre, blocking the main street beneath the old, fractured town hall as supporters and passerbys, climbed trucks and searched for a close up view of the proceedings. Despite the rain, hundreds gathered with enthusiasm, some under colourful umbrellas standing in puddles of mud, as Sheka went to address them.

“You have to forgive us,” Sheka said, “We are coming from the jungle and don’t have the loudspeakers to address you.

“I am the president of the political wing of a militia group … and we will solve your problems,” he said to wide applause.

Support for Sheka in Walikale is chequered, with locals mostly unwilling to openly speak about their political alliances, fearing reprisals. A local source explained that many residents still see Sheka as defending the community from marauding foreign fighters from Rwanda.

But a local teacher from Walikale told Al Jazeera that Sheka had caused enough damage to people’s lives and that he would not support him, while a mobile phone vendor sitting just metres from rally said that Sheka ought to be apprehended for his crimes.

‘Cannot be traced’

Earlier, Sheka emerged from a set of red stonewalled buildings behind a school and marched in the rain with around 100 of his fighters, carrying rocket-propelled grenades and AK 47s into the town. His supporters promptly joined the march singing songs and beating plastic containers in a bid to create a ruckus ahead of his address.

The rally came after days of confusing events that left UN and political analysts speculative of the shifting relations between the Congolese army and Sheka’s Mai Mai faction.

On Wednesday, Jonathan Chuma, Walikale’s sector commander, told Al Jazeera that Sheka had entered the town and was in the hands of government forces, but clarified that “he was not under arrest” despite the warrant.

Chuma provided no other details and asked Al Jazeera not to film around the school complex, which fed further speculation of ongoing negotiations between the two sides.

When approached on Thursday at the school complex about Sheka’s whereabouts, Chuma said that the rebel leader had “disappeared” and that they “cannot trace him”.

But within an hour, Sheka emerged from the complex, and marched with his entourage of fighters and supporters into town.

The rally continued despite the torrential rains that continue to swamp the eastern DRC. Poorly built sand tracks are flooded, and the UN was forced to cancel flights on Thursday due to poor visibility.

The UN stabilisation mission MONUSCO are racing against time to transport election material to offices across the country, after materials arrived late in Kinshasa.

Walikale, a remote region with North Kivu in the eastern DRC, is considered one of the hotspots during these elections as government forces and armed groups continue to battle it out in the forests.

The region is known for significant gold, diamond deposits, attracting rival groups to compete over territory.

Joseph Kabila, the incumbent DRC president, is tipped to be re-elected though analysts are warning that key opposition candidates Vital Kamerhe and Etiene Tshedekedi should not be underestimated.