The cities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are administrative divisions of provinces with the exception of Kinshasa which itself has the status of a province. Cities are further divided into communes. They are led by mayors except for Kinshasa which is led by a governor.
The 25 provinces of DR Congo are divided into 33 cities (fr. villes, sing. ville) and 145 territories (fr. territoires, sing. territoire).[1] Each provincial division is also a constituency of the National Assembly as well as of the Provincial Assembly of its province.[2]
Each city is led by a mayor (fr. maire) and is further divided into communes with each commune led by a burgomaster (fr. bourgmestre).[3] Currently mayors, burgomasters, and their deputies are appointed by the government.[4]Elections to bring about elected local government in provincial capitals are scheduled for December 2023—September 2024.
All provincial capitals are, by organic law, cities and do not need to meet the requirement of having a population of at least 100,000.[5]
Kinshasa
The capital city of Kinshasa is a one of a kind administrative division due to article 2 of the Constitution which makes it a division of the country and gives it the status of a province.[6] In practice this means that—like a province—it has a provincial government with an elected governor and an Assembly, but—like a city—it is divided into communes led by burgomasters.[7] Uniquely, its 24 communes are also Provincial Assembly constituencies and are grouped into four National Assembly constituencies.[2]
List of cities
Cities directly represented in the 2024–2028 National Assembly[8][9][10]
Due to the lack of reliable and comparable population figures, electoral districts are allocated seats in proportion to their voter registration numbers. The number of seats allocated to a city in the National Assembly and the Provincial Assembly is one measure of its relative political importance nationally and within its province respectively.
In 2018 cities accounted for 27% of the electorate, or 16% when Kinshasa is excluded.[11]
In mid-2018, just before the general election of that year, the government upheld the 2013 granting of city status to a large number of populated places, including 65 not listed above.[12] It was further decided to make these cities operational in stages.[13] Since then the following ones have had their first mayor appointed and take office without being National Assembly districts:
↑ Compiled from the lists of candidates for the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies available at the CENIwebsite. See for example Sankuru NDCs and Tshuapa PDCs.
"Décret n° 18/020 du 30 mai 2018"(PDF). Journal officiel de la République Démocratique du Congo (in French). 59 (13). col 13-14. 1 July 2019. Retrieved 22 Jan 2020.
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