News / National
DR Congo delay result of presidential vote
05 Jan 2019 at 18:34hrs | Views
Election officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo have delayed publishing the results of last Sunday's presidential vote, despite growing calls for the outcome to be announced.
The electoral commission said the result would be revealed "next week".
Earlier this week the influential Catholic Church, which fielded thousands of election observers, said there was a clear winner.
It called for the result to be made public to avoid political unrest.
This drew an angry response from the coalition in power which said the church was "doing something illegal" and accused it of "preparing the population for insurrection".
The Church had been vocal in its opposition to the extension of President Joseph Kabila's rule.
He is stepping down after 17 years in office and has promised DR Congo's first orderly transfer of power since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960.
The official result was due to be announced on Sunday, although the electoral commission had warned a few days ago this could be delayed.
The head of the commission, Corneille Nangaa, said on Saturday that less than half of all the votes had been counted.
"It is not possible to publish the results on Sunday. We are making progress, but we do not have everything yet." No date for the announcement was given.
On Thursday, the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (Cenco) - which deployed some 40,000 election observers on voting day - said there was a clear winner based on its tally of the votes.
They did not name anyone but urged election officials "to publish the election results in keeping with truth and justice".
The ruling FCC (Common Front for the Congo) told the BBC only the electoral commission is officially allowed to announce results.
The electoral commission said the result would be revealed "next week".
Earlier this week the influential Catholic Church, which fielded thousands of election observers, said there was a clear winner.
It called for the result to be made public to avoid political unrest.
This drew an angry response from the coalition in power which said the church was "doing something illegal" and accused it of "preparing the population for insurrection".
The Church had been vocal in its opposition to the extension of President Joseph Kabila's rule.
He is stepping down after 17 years in office and has promised DR Congo's first orderly transfer of power since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960.
The official result was due to be announced on Sunday, although the electoral commission had warned a few days ago this could be delayed.
The head of the commission, Corneille Nangaa, said on Saturday that less than half of all the votes had been counted.
"It is not possible to publish the results on Sunday. We are making progress, but we do not have everything yet." No date for the announcement was given.
On Thursday, the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (Cenco) - which deployed some 40,000 election observers on voting day - said there was a clear winner based on its tally of the votes.
They did not name anyone but urged election officials "to publish the election results in keeping with truth and justice".
The ruling FCC (Common Front for the Congo) told the BBC only the electoral commission is officially allowed to announce results.
Source - BBC
