Kinshasa, April 29th, 2026 (CPA). – A call for reforms to improve the quality of the electoral process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was launched Wednesday in Kinshasa during a reflection day organized by the Justice, Peace and Safeguarding of Creation (JPSC) commission of the Church of Christ in the Congo (ECC), CPA learned.
“All the speakers agree that the time has come to undertake reforms to improve the quality of elections. And many contributors converge on the same ideal. Reforms are not made for the sake of reform itself, but to improve the quality of the electoral process,” said Professor Ferdinand Kapanga, Academic Secretary-General of the Central African School of Electoral Training (EFEAC), one of the panelists. He supported remarks made by the Second Vice-President of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Didi Manara, who mentioned the possibility of introducing “blocked and zebra lists,” noting that he had advocated for such lists during parliamentary seminars in the transitional period years ago.
“He also spoke about moving away from the ‘largest remainder’ method towards the ‘highest average’ method. If the idea is to avoid political fragmentation, I believe the highest average method, which favors larger political parties, can help reduce such fragmentation,” Professor Kapanga said. He further proposed an innovation: moving towards the “divisor rule,” which is currently used in Western democracies. He noted that EFEAC is actively involved in these reforms. “That is why I am here, and I also presented myself as a professor of EFEAC. This is the subject we teach in classrooms and online.
It is now important to make this knowledge available to the public. That is what we have done. All my interventions were essentially pedagogical,” he concluded. The reflection day featured interventions by Reverend Dr. André Bokundoa, National President of the ECC, Pastor Eric Nsenga, ECC Secretary-General, Didi Manara, Vice-President of CENI, Norbert Basengezi, Second Vice-President of the Senate, and MP Delly Sessanga, followed by a question-and-answer session.