Electoral commission slams church over vote comment

THE Democratic Republic of Congo’s electoral commission has accused the country’s Catholic Church of “preparing an insurrection” by saying it knows the winner of last Sunday’s presidential election.

The commission is scheduled to release provisional results today but has said there could be delays because of the slow arrival of tally sheets.

Donatien Nshole, the secretary-general of the church’s bishops’ conference, known as Cenco, said on Thursday that its vote tallies showed a clear victor in the December 30 election, a pronouncement widely seen as a warning to authorities against rigging the vote.

“The announcement of voting trends by Priest Nshole is likely to brainwash the population while preparing an insurrection that Cenco alone will be responsible for,” commission president Corneille Nangaa wrote in a letter to Cenco president Marcel Utembi.

Nangaa said Cenco’s declaration violated electoral law and a code of conduct signed by poll monitors that gives the electoral commission, CENI, the sole authority to announce results.

The Catholic Church is one of Congo’s most powerful institutions, representing about 40% of its 80 million people.

The ruling coalition of President Joseph Kabila, which is backing his hand-picked successor Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, also took aim at

Cenco.

The coalition “deplores the partisan, irresponsible and anarchic attitude of Cenco,” said Barnabe Kikaya Bin Karubi, an adviser to Kabila and spokesperson for Shadary.

The UN Security Council was briefed on the latest developments on Friday at the request of France. French UN Ambassador Francois Delattre said the 15-member body would continue to monitor the electoral process.

Some observers and the opposition say the election was marred by serious irregularities.

The opposition, represented by its two main candidates, Martin Fayulu and Felix Tshisekedi, and Shadary’s camp have all claimed they are on course to win, without posting specific figures.

The government says the election was fair and went smoothly.

The poll is meant to lead to Congo’s first democratic transfer of power.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said about 80 US military personnel and “appropriate combat equipment” had been sent to the DRC in case they were needed to protect American citizens and diplomatic facilities.

He said more military personnel had been sent to Gabon, Congo or the neighbouring Republic of Congo.

On Thursday, the US called on CENI to publish accurate results and threatened sanctions against anyone who sought to undermine the process.

An election dispute could further destabilise Congo’s volatile eastern provinces, where wars around the turn of the century resulted in millions of deaths, most from hunger and disease, and where dozens of militia remain active.

Kabila’s government cut access to the internet as well as Radio France Internationale and some local media this week, saying it wanted to prevent fake results from circulating.

The EU also called on the election authorities to ensure that the results reflected the will of the Congolese people. |