Forty-four million Congolese voters are expected to go to the polls on Wednesday to elect DR Congo’s president, members of the national and provincial parliaments, as well as municipal council members.

The presidential election has attracted the most attention from national and international observers. Of the twenty-six challengers registered at the start of the presidential race, only nineteen contenders are still competing on election day. The other seven have rallied other candidates.

The main challengers to outgoing president Felix Tshisekedi include former Katanga Province governor Moïse Katumbi, Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege, as well as Martin Fayulu, who was runner-up to Mr. Tshisekedi in the last presidential elections.

In a judgment rendered on October 30, the Congo Constitutional Court allowed all main candidates to proceed in the presidential race, rejecting a challenge over the candidacy of Moise Katumbi, and even allowing the candidacies of two more candidates who had been deemed ineligible by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI). Candidates crisscrossed the vast Central-Southern African country during a fraught electoral campaign that ended on Monday.

For the first time, after three democratic electoral cycles organized in DR Congo, voters will also be able to elect their representatives at the municipal level.

Congolese citizens living in South Africa, Belgium, France, Canada and the United States will also be able to vote at polling places established by the Congolese embassies in those countries.