Results from the Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s (DRC) long-delayed presidential election could be pushed back past Sunday\u2019s deadline, the country\u2019s electoral commission has said, as ballots trickle in and tensions aprevail over the vote count.<\/p>\n
As of Wednesday, three days after the election, counting centres had received just 17 percent of the tally sheets drawn up by individual polling stations, the president of the Ceni electoral commission, Corneille Nangaa, told Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will try as hard as possible to meet Sunday\u2019s deadline, but it will be challenging,\u201d<\/em> Nangaa said, without mentioning the reason for the delays.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Election monitors from the Southern African Development Community said the December 30 vote \u201cwent relatively well\u201d despite chaotic scenes that prevented many from voting.<\/p>\n
The crucial election is meant to lead to DRC\u2019s first democratic transfer of power in 59 years of independence.<\/p>\n
But more than a million Congolese in three opposition strongholds were unable to vote due to an ebola outbreak, security concerns, local factional conflict and various logistical problems.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for Felix Tshisekedi, one of the two opposition candidates, said he does not mind when the results are published as long as they are an honest reflection of the vote.<\/p>\n
“I doubt it will be Sunday, because some corners of the country have not transmitted their results, but I can\u2019t speak for the commission,<\/em>\u201d Vital Kamerhe told reporters in the capital, Kinshasa.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether it\u2019s on Sunday or Monday, Tuesday, we don\u2019t mind. What we want are results published that reflect the truth of the ballot boxes, that is the most important thing,\u201d<\/em> he added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The elections will determine the successor of President Joseph Kabila at the helm of sub-Saharan Africa\u2019s biggest country for nearly 18 years.<\/p>\n
Kabila refused to step down after his two-term constitutional limit ended in 2016, sparking protests that were quelled at the cost of scores of lives.<\/p>\n
Pre-election polling showed Kabila\u2019s preferred candidate, ex-interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, trailing the main opposition candidates, Martin Fayulu and Tshisekedi, but both sides say they expect to win.<\/p>\n
The African Union issued a statement on Wednesday saying Sunday\u2019s vote had taken place \u201cin a peaceful and tranquil atmosphere, despite interference and all the security, political and organisational challenges\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cThe holding of these elections constitutes, in itself, a first great victory for the Congolese people,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThe mission strongly wishes that the results that will be declared are true to the vote of the Congolese people.\u201d<\/em>\u2014 Al Jazeera<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Results from the Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s (DRC) long-delayed presidential election could be pushed back past Sunday\u2019s deadline, the country\u2019s electoral commission has said, as ballots trickle in and tensions aprevail over the vote count. As of Wednesday, three days after the election, counting centres had received just 17 percent of the tally sheets drawn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":72816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72817,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72810\/revisions\/72817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}