Fire has destroyed over 7,000 voting machines in the Democratic Republic of Congo with 10 days to go before the presidential election.
The fire incident occurred at an electoral commission warehouse in Kinshasa in the early hours of Thursday.
An adviser to DRC President Joseph Kabila said the blaze which he claimed was started by “criminals” razed down 70 percent of ballot boxes and voting machines earmarked to be used in Kinshasa.
“The enemies of democracy have stepped it up a gear,” the presidential adviser Barnabe Kikaya Bin Karubi said.
Kikaya maintained that elections will go ahead as voting machines from elsewhere in the country would be recalled in Kinshasa. He added that police guarding the warehouse had been arrested.
However, opposition supporters accused government of masterminding the arson saying the Kabila administration want an excuse to postpone the poll.
“We are dealing with a criminal regime. This is not a fire that is accidental. The prime suspect must be the regime itself,
The elections in DRC could see the country’s first-ever democratic transition of power but the campaign period has been marred by violence.
