Elections in the time of Ebola: Congo votes amid disease
BENI, Congo — What’s an election campaign without shaking hands with potential voters? Congolese candidates in the thick of an Ebola outbreak, now the second deadliest in history, are finding out in uncomfortable ways.
Jaribu Muliwavyo seeks another term as provincial deputy in North Kivu, the restless centre of the outbreak. He’s sad when he arrives in communities and isn’t permitted to greet traditional chiefs properly, with a warm clasp of hands.
“They take that as an insult,” Muliwavyo told The Associated Press. This election, he mused, is “a real puzzle.”
The current Ebola outbreak is like no other, and it promises trouble for Congo’s presidential election on Sunday. Unrest by dozens of rebel groups in this Central African nation with 40 million voters already posed a challenge to the long-delayed vote. Then Ebola, a deadly virus spread via contact with infected bodily fluids, emerged in a part of eastern Congo that had never seen it before.