Preliminary results from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)\u2019s tumultuous presidential election was delayed past Sunday\u2019s deadline.<\/p>\n
The announcement which the head of the electoral commission made on Saturday prompted fears the vote result could be manipulated, with analysts saying prolonged uncertainty could trigger deadly clashes, similar to the violence that broke out in the central African country after the 2006 and 2011 elections.<\/p>\n
The commission, known as Ceni, had received only 47 percent of vote tally sheets as of Saturday, its president, Corneille Nangaa, told Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n
It not yet clear when the results would be ready, he said, adding: \u201cIt will not be possible to announce the results tomorrow [Sunday].\u201d<\/p>\n
Nangaa said the delay was caused by logistical problems posed by the DRC\u2019s size, with the country encompassing an area approximately as large as Western Europe.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s powerful National Episcopal Conference of Congo (Cenco), which represents the country\u2019s Catholic bishops, warned popular anger could result, in the event the final result was not \u201ctrue to the verdict of the ballot box\u201d.<\/p>\n
DRC\u2019s powerful Catholic Church, which deployed more than 40,000 election observers, had said Thursday it knew who had won the vote but did not name him as the country\u2019s electoral regulations forbid anyone but the electoral commission to announce results.<\/p>\n
In a letter to Nangaa on Saturday, Cenco president, Monsignor Marcel Utembi, said that, given the delay, \u201cif there is a popular uprising it would be the responsibility of the Ceni\u201d.<\/p>\n
The December 30 vote saw 21 candidates run to replace President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled the vast, conflict-ridden country for almost 18 years.<\/p>\n
Among the frontrunners were Kabila\u2019s handpicked successor Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary and two opposition candidates: veteran heavyweight Felix Tshisekedi and newcomer Martin Fayulu.<\/p>\n
The lengthy counting process has raised fears among opposition politicians and non-governmental organisations that the results could be manipulated to put Shadary in power.<\/p>\n
Fayulu, Tshisekedi and the ruling coalition all claim to have won the vote.<\/p>\n
The New York Times<\/em>, citing an unnamed Western diplomat and a presidential adviser, said on Saturday that the church has determined that Fayulu won the election, with a lead of 30 points over Shadary.<\/p>\n Kabila\u2019s ruling Common Front for Congo coalition has accused Cenco of \u201cseriously breaching\u201d<\/em> the constitution and electoral law by \u201cillegally declaring voting trends\u201d in favour of a given candidate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Analysts warned of a heightened potential for violence should the uncertainty over Kabila\u2019s successor continue.<\/p>\n \u201cThe state will want some more time to rig it, that\u2019s what they are playing for, time,\u201d said Reuben Loffman, a lecturer in African history and specialist in DRC history at United Kingdom-based Queen Mary University of London.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIf they release the results now they will immediately get exposed \u2026 the church would immediately come on to them,\u201d<\/em> he told Al Jazeera.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Independent Central Africa analyst Kris Berwouts, meanwhile, said Kabila\u2019s administration was \u201ccornered\u201d in the wake of the election.<\/p>\n \u201cThe plan was to organise the elections and, independent of who people voted for, proclaim Shadary as the winner,\u201d<\/em> said Berwouts, author of Congo\u2019s Violent Peace: Conflict and Struggle since the Great African War. <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cEverybody at this point is extremely aware of the potential for violence \u2026 that potential exists because the regime<\/em>\u2014 Al Jazeera<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Preliminary results from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)\u2019s tumultuous presidential election was delayed past Sunday\u2019s deadline. The announcement which the head of the electoral commission made on Saturday prompted fears the vote result could be manipulated, with analysts saying prolonged uncertainty could trigger deadly clashes, similar to the violence that broke out in the central […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":72903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72899","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\/72899","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=72899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72904,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72899\/revisions\/72904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}