Kinshasa, DRC – Not long after the Democratic Republic of the Congo‘s (DRC) electoral commission announced that elections scheduled for December 23 had been delayed by a week, a group of unemployed men outside a restaurant in capital Kinshasa had a look of disappointment etched across their faces.

“All we want to do is vote and decide our future. We want to choose someone who can improve our situation, but it seems the electoral commission is doing everything to keep the president in power,” Kambayi Ibrahim, a 35-year-old father of three, told Al Jazeera.

Last week, while extending the already-delayed elections, the electoral commission said it had no choice since the ballot materials were destroyed in a fire in its warehouse in the capital, Kinshasa.

But opposition supporters criticised the delay, saying it was a ploy to keep President Joseph Kabila in power. 
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