Vote count begins after disputed election in Congo
A marathon vote count was under way yesterday in the Democratic Republic of Congo after presidential elections carried out amid accusations of electoral interference by the regime.
Votes have been cast to choose a successor to outgoing President Joseph Kabila, who has been in power since 2001.
However, the opposition party, UDPS, said the authorities cut off the internet to prevent activism after early polls suggested that Martin Fayulu and Felix Tshisekedi were ahead of Mr Kabila’s preferred successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary.
The republic has not had a peaceful transition of power since gaining independence from Belgium in 1960, with bloodshed marring elections in 2006 and 2011.
Violence erupted during this vote too – four people were killed on Sunday at a polling station in the Walungu area of South Kivu province.
A spokesman for an independent monitoring mission, Symocel, confirmed that an electoral official was killed as well as a policeman and two civilians after the official attempted to rig the vote in favour of Mr Shadary. Other people were wounded, the spokesman said.
Provisional results are due to be announced by January 6, followed by the final results on January 15. The new head of state will be sworn in three days later.
All three candidates have already claimed victory.
At Mbuji-Mayi in the central region of Kasai, the UDPS accused Governor Alphonse Ngoyi Kasanji of trying to stuff ballot boxes in favour of Mr Shadary.
Mr Ngoyi’s spokesman has accused UDPS supporters of trying to make off with voting machines.
The three main candidates have set up “compilation centres” to track the vote.
While turnout failed to reach 50 per cent at some polling stations, many voters said they were exhilarated to take part in the first elections after the Kabila era.
However, there was also much evidence of organisational problems, including issues with electronic voting machines.
The Catholic monitoring mission said that as of yesterday morning, its observers had checked overall voting tallies in 4,161 polling stations.
In 3,626 stations, the number of paper ballots tallied with totals kept by the voting machines, the observer mission said – a figure that suggests possible discrepancies in 535 stations.
Poverty, corruption and government inertia are etched into the African country’s history, alongside a reputation for violence.
Militias control large areas of territory to the east and regularly battle over resources, often killing civilians during the confrontations.
Insecurity and an Ebola epidemic in part of North Kivu province – and communal violence in Yumbi in the southwest – prompted the authorities to postpone elections in those regions until March.
About 1.25 million people in a national electoral roll of about 40 million voters were affected by the decision.
The city of Beni held a symbolic vote in protest at the exclusion from the ballot, drawing more than 60,000 people out of a local electoral roll of 182,000, the organisers of the event said.