Voters in the Democratic Republic of Congo have gone to the polls to choose a new president to replace Joseph Kabila, who has been in power for 17 years.

Here is a selection of some of the best pictures from the day:

A heavy downpour in the capital, Kinshasa, meant that voting got off to a slow start.

At polling stations, voters, here in the east of the country, needed to find their names on the electoral register.

There were protests in one area of the capital as people were angry that the register had not turned up.

Once inside the polling station, voters made their choice on a touch-screen computer. In some places the electronic voting machines had broken down, causing delays.

After a choice was made on the voting machine it then printed out a ballot paper.

Voters got their thumb inked to show that they had cast a ballot, preventing them from voting more than once.

In some parts of the country the vote was postponed by the authorities, who cited security concerns and the current Ebola outbreak.

In Beni, one of the areas affected in the east – shown above and below – activists organised their own vote.

There were long queues as people wanted to take part in the symbolic vote.

Pictures from AFP and Reuters

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