Tense Congo blocked SMS as a security 'precaution'

DR Congo's 30 million-plus registered voters are awaiting the announcement of the election results with trepidation.

This follows the suspension of text messages on mobile phone networks and a declaration on Sunday by the electoral commission that its website had been hacked.

The government justified the suspension of SMS messages on grounds of security and as a precaution against political disturbances at a particularly volatile period.

“The government noticed that some political parties are using the SMS messages to refuse to accept the results,” declared Mr Adolphe Lumanu, the vice-prime minister in charge of Internal Affairs.

While some Congolese found it alright for the government to block text messaging at this politically tense time, many among the youth, especially in the eastern city of Goma, took a dim view.

In their view, blocking SMS did not make sense when people were free to use other social networks like Facebook and Twitter to communicate.

Others like Mr Bakungu Mitondeke, an opposition-leaning politician, weighed in on the harm the measure would do to telecommunication companies and for business in general.

The reported hacking of the electoral commission’s website prompted the agency to suspend partial publication of results on the website.

Mr Daniel Ngoy Mulunda, the commission’s chairman, said the website had been hacked by unknown persons who published false figures in favour of leading opposition candidate Etienne Tshisekedi.

In 2006, the then chair of the electoral commission, the Rev Apollinaire Malumalu, had to be transported by a UN armoured car to the state-owned television station where he delivered provisional results.

Opposition candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba’s armed fighters tried to prevent him from delivering the results.