DR Congo Elections
AS OF 2026-08-30 · 18 CONTESTS · general election, 20 December 2023 · WIKIPEDIA, NATIONAL ELECTORAL AUTHORITIES
Next election · general election, expected December 2028 · Capital · Kinshasa in the metro rankings →
Every national election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from the Belgian Congo's last colonial ballot in 1960 to December 2023: ten weeks of independence before the state broke apart, five assemblies elected on Mobutu's single list, three presidential plebiscites he could not lose, and the fragmented, disputed and genuinely consequential votes of the present republic.
Source: Wikipedia election articles · as of 2026-08-30
National Assembly seats
500
251 for a majority
Contests on file
18
December 2023
73.5%
Tshisekedi's share, on 42.7% turnout
Presidential elections
The presidency, newest first. Three of these were single-candidate plebiscites under Mobutu and are marked unfree; the four since 2006 were contested, and three of the four were disputed.
Tshisekedi · 2018–2023
The 2018 result was the first transfer of power by ballot in Congolese history and also the most disputed: the Catholic Church's observer mission, which had deployed forty thousand monitors, said its own count did not match the published one. Félix Tshisekedi took a second term in December 2023 with 73%, in a vote extended to a second day amid fraud claims and followed by the cancellation of results in two constituencies.
The transition · 2006–2011
The first multi-party presidential election in forty-one years was held in 2006 under a United Nations mission, went to a runoff, and was followed by street fighting in Kinshasa between the two candidates' guards. The single-round rule adopted for 2011 let Joseph Kabila win a second term with 49% against a divided field, on a count the opposition and international observers both rejected.
The plebiscites · 1970–1984
Mobutu put himself to the country three times as the only name on the ballot and was returned with 100%, 98.1% and 99.2%. The 1970 vote reported more ballots than there were registered voters. Green cards meant yes and red meant no, and voters collected them in front of officials.
National Assembly elections
Every National Assembly election, newest first. The five between 1970 and 1987 returned a single party to every seat.
After the wars · 2006–2023
Two wars and Mobutu's fall separate the last one-party assembly from the first elected National Assembly of the new republic in 2006. The chamber has grown to five hundred seats and is extraordinarily fragmented: more than a hundred parties won seats in 2011, and the largest party in 2023 held fewer than one seat in seven.
The MPR years · 1970–1987
The Popular Movement of the Revolution was written into the constitution as the country's only party, and every citizen was a member by birth. Five assemblies were elected on its single list, taking every seat each time. The country was renamed Zaire in 1971.
Independence and collapse · 1960–1965
The Belgian Congo elected a National Assembly in May 1960 with no party close to a majority, and independence lasted ten weeks before the state broke apart. Katanga seceded, Patrice Lumumba was deposed and murdered, and the United Nations fought a war in the south. The 1965 election was held as the country reassembled and was followed within months by Mobutu's coup.
The long arc in charts
Hover any point for the exact figure.
Presidential turnout
70.5% at the first multi-party election in 2006, then 59.1%, 47.6% and 42.7%. Participation has fallen at every election since the transition.
The winner's share
100%, 98.1% and 99.2% under Mobutu; 58.1%, 49.0%, 38.6% and 73.5% since. The two halves of this chart are not measuring the same thing.
Records & superlatives
Highest presidential turnout
70.5%
2006
Lowest presidential turnout
42.6%
2023
Narrowest win
38.6%
Félix Tshisekedi, 2018
Most seats won
111
People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy, 2006
Single-list assemblies
5
1970 to 1987, every seat to the Popular Movement of the Revolution
Parties winning seats in 2011
105
the most fragmented national assembly in the atlas
How Congolese elections work
A president elected in one round
The runoff used in 2006 was removed from the constitution in 2011, so the presidency now goes to whoever comes first however small the plurality. Joseph Kabila won a second term on 49% against a divided opposition under the new rule, and the change is the single most consequential electoral fact of the period.
An assembly elected in 500 pieces
Members are chosen in constituencies that range from one seat to seventeen, by open list where more than one seat is at stake. With no meaningful threshold and hundreds of parties registered, the largest bloc in 2023 held fewer than one seat in seven and government is assembled afterwards.
The single list
From 1970 to 1987 the Popular Movement of the Revolution was the only legal party, membership was automatic at birth, and it won every seat at every election. Mobutu was confirmed as president three times as the only candidate on the ballot. Those rows are marked unfree.
Counting a country the size of western Europe
Results are moved by road, river and aircraft from tens of thousands of polling stations, and the 2018 and 2023 counts were both extended, partially cancelled and publicly contested. The disputes recorded on this page are about the count as much as the campaign.