Chronicle Editor
Democratic Republic of Congo’s influential Roman Catholic Church said on Thursday that it knew who had won the country’s presidential elections and called on the authorities to quell a mounting storm about the outcome.
A spokesperson for a senior church body, the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO), said “data in its possession from vote counting reports from polling stations designates the selection of one candidate as president”.
CENCO called on election overseers “to publish the election results in keeping with truth and justice,” said spokesman Father Donatien Nshole.
It says it deployed more than 40 000 observers across the country to monitor Sunday’s vote, the first presidential ballot since 2011.
It made the appeal just hours after the head of the Independent National Election Commission (CENI) said logistical problems in collecting election data meant that provisional results – due by tomorrow – may be delayed.
The DRC, which is sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest country and one of its most unstable, has been roiled by violence and political uncertainty for the past two years.
President Joseph Kabila (47) should have stepped down at the end of 2016 when his constitutionally-limited two terms in office expired.
But he invoked a caretaker clause in the constitution to stay on, sparking protests which were ruthlessly crushed, leaving scores dead.
Elections to succeed him were delayed several times before they finally took place on Sunday last week.
They have been further postponed in several areas of the country hit by violence.
Nshole spoke at a presentation of a preliminary report on the election by CENO’s monitoring team, the Electoral Observation Mission of the Peace and Justice Commission.
“It is importance to emphasise that the irregularities that were observed were not able to significantly affect the choice which the Congolese people clearly expressed through the ballot box,” he declared.
Communications Minister Lambert Mende has warned foreign media against any move to forestall announcement of the results, saying this task was solely the right of CENI.
DRC has never known a peaceful handover of power since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960 and many fear there will be renewed bloodshed if the results lack credibility.
The country lived through two fully-fledged wars between 1996 and 2003 that claimed millions of lives through bloodshed, fighting, starvation and disease.
Violence also marred elections in 2006 and 2011.
Meanwhile, the United States on Thursday demanded that the Democratic Republic of Congo release “accurate” election results, warning of sanctions on anyone who undermines the fledgling democracy.
The United States said that DRC authorities should remove restrictions on internet access and media and urged the Independent National Election Commission (CENI) to count votes transparently.
“On December 30, millions of Congolese went peacefully to the polls. Now is the time for CENI to affirm that these votes were not cast in vain by ensuring the accurate reporting of election results,” State Department spokesperson Robert Palladino said in a statement.
The election could mark the first peaceful transition of power in the war-torn DRC, sub-Saharan Africa’s largest country geographically, since independence in 1960.
“There are moments in every nation’s history when individuals and political leaders step forward and do the right thing. This is one of those moments for the DRC,” Palladino said.
“Those who undermine the democratic process, threaten the peace, security or stability of the DRC, or benefit from corruption may find themselves not welcome in the United States and cut off from the US financial system,” he said.
Online Reporter