EFFECTIVENESS OF THE RIGHT TO VOTE: BETWEEN FORMAL LEGALITY AND DEMOCRATIC LEGITIMACY IN THE DRC

Abstract

Voting rights are a cornerstone of constitutional democracy because they simultaneously function as a fundamental political right, a mechanism for legitimizing public authority, and a means through which citizens participate in public affairs. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this right is formally guaranteed by constitutional and electoral norms affirming popular sovereignty, universal and equal suffrage, and an institutional framework meant to secure free and transparent elections. However, the existence of this legal framework does not automatically ensure the effective enjoyment of voting rights. Between 2018 and 2023, the Congolese electoral cycles revealed a persistent gap between formal legality and democratic legitimacy. This article examines that gap through a doctrinal and documentary study focused on the 2018 and 2023 general elections. It argues that the main challenge to the effectiveness of voting rights in the DRC lies not only in the content of the law, but in the practical conditions under which the vote is exercised: voter registration weaknesses, unequal access to polling, logistical failures, procedural ambiguities, insufficient transparency in the tabulation of results, and limited effectiveness of electoral remedies. Consequently, voting rights should not be assessed solely by the existence of legal guarantees, but by the actual capacity of the electoral system to enable citizens to vote under conditions of equality, liberty, security, traceability, and public trust. The paper shows that both the 2018 and 2023 elections were held within a relatively comprehensive legal framework, yet one whose implementation was often selective or contested. It further demonstrates that recurring deficiencies in transparency, verifiability, and electoral inclusion weakened the perception that official outcomes genuinely reflected the will of the people. The article concludes that strengthening voting rights in the DRC requires a deeper alignment between legal norms, electoral administration, and judicial oversight so that suffrage may become not merely a proclaimed right, but an effectively guaranteed one.