Kinshasa: The voting will take place ‘as planned’ in the Ebola-hit northeastern region of Democratic Republic of Congo on December 30, election officials have said.
“Nothing has changed in terms of voting centres. We are maintaining the voting centres in the Ebola-affected areas as health ministry authorities did not see any specific need to change locations,” Jean-Pierre Kalamba, spokesman of the ‘Commission Electorale Nationale Independante’ or CENI told Al Jazeera.
DR Congo is facing its worst-ever Ebola crisis that started in May 2018 and has killed over 320 people ever since. More than 500 people have been confirmed as suffering from Ebola in the northern provinces of Kivu and Ituri.
Officials tried to alleviate fears regarding the spread of the virus through voting by saying that the people have been ‘sensitised’.
“We have been given measures to protect ourselves and this is helping. We always mingle in churches, at work, and in markets. We will go and vote. It is a risk but we have to take it,” Kambale Kaputo, a civil servant in Beni said.
Voters like Christian Batenahe, a teacher in Beni, have voiced their support for the voting and said, “We are not worried at all. We are going to vote on December 30th because it is the right of every Congolese to go and vote. Ebola is not going to stop us.”
This is the world’s second deadliest Ebola outbreak since the virus killed 11,000 people in West Africa in 2014.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]