Five presidential candidates called for the “immediate annulment” of the elections held this week in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which were marked by delays, logistical problems and allegations of irregularities by the opposition.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the candidates, including one of the main opposition leaders, the businessman and former governor of the former province of Katanga, Moise Katumbi, criticized the “massive fraud” in the elections, to which the outgoing president, Félix Tshisekedi, is a candidate for re-election.
“Faced with this unacceptable situation, we call for the immediate annulment of these chaotic elections, marked by massive fraud and documented by all interested parties”, the candidates highlighted.
“This Machiavellian system of fraud allowed CENI (Independent National Electoral Commission) to print minutes that wrongly identify the outgoing president as the winner in areas where, in reality, he did not obtain votes”, they assured.
The candidates considered that “the publication of the results of each electoral college has no credibility” and demanded the “immediate dismissal” of the president of CENI for “having planned and orchestrated the worst electoral fraud the country has ever known”.
“Consequently, we do not accept simulations of the results that result from this process and the institutions that will result from it”, they concluded.
Another five candidates denounced the existence of a general “simulated election” in the Democratic Republic of Congo and announced a protest demonstration for next Wednesday in the capital, Kinshasa.
“We will protest against the irregularities observed during the votes on December 20th,” said the candidates, including gynecologist and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege and opposition leader Martin Fayulu.
In view of the climate of tension, the embassies of Spain and 12 other Western countries asked, on Saturday, “moderation” from the country’s political actors during the vote count.
CENI began publishing the first provisional results of the elections on Friday night, giving Tshisekedi the lead in the count, although the number of votes counted is still very low.
The elections took place on Wednesday and continued through Thursday and Friday in areas where logistical problems delayed and prevented voting.
Around 44 million people – of the country’s more than 100 million inhabitants – were called to exercise their right to vote in 75,000 schools for presidential, legislative, provincial and local elections.
The delays were largely due to the last-minute arrival of electoral material at the polling stations.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa and has more than 100 million inhabitants and great mineral wealth, but with deficient infrastructure throughout the territory.
