PH
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the influential Catholic bishops conference and Protestant churches have urged that an impartial investigation be launched into the anomalies and purported legal infractions noticed during the general elections held in December.
Controversy has surrounded the results of the presidential election, which incumbent Felix Tshisekedi won with over 73% of the vote, according to CENI, the election commission of the central African nation.
The CENCO-ECC Catholic and Protestant churches announced in a joint statement on Thursday that they would only accept the outcome of the legislative and presidential votes provided an investigation was established. On election day and in the aftermath, the organizations had kept an eye on the polls with their thousands of impartial observers.
Voting was extended beyond Dec. 20, despite local observers and civil society organizations calling it unconstitutional. Voting continued for five days following election day due to hours-long delays, broken voting machines, and other problems.
Numerous polling places opened late or not at all as a result of logistical issues. A lot of voter cards had smeared ink that rendered them unreadable, and some were missing materials.Many opposition candidates have rejected the provisional results, claiming that this amounts to fraud in the election.
The Congolese constitutional court has received two formal appeals against the provisional presidential results. The court is required to consider the appeals prior to the deadline of January 12 for the announcement of the definitive results.
Election chief Denis Kadima reported that around 18 million individuals cast ballots in the election, with a turnout of over 40%.
