By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The Presidential and National Assembly polls in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continued for the second day on Thursday, amidst chaos and unscheduled extension which the opposition candidates said is unconstitutional.
They are also calling for the total cancellation of the voting expected to continue on Friday.
The elections in Africa’s second-largest country on Wednesday were marred by delays in delivering election materials and technical hitches, including malfunctioning equipment.
Voters also struggled to find their names on registers, while violent incidents disrupted the poll in other places.
The administration of President Felix Tshisekedi, who is seeking a second term, dismissed criticism of the vote, saying it is only concerned with the credibility of the process.
“We have had inclusive, peaceful, and transparent elections,” said Giscard Kusema of the presidency’s press team.
The vice-president of the electoral body, Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) said the electoral process was running much more smoothly on Thursday than the previous day and that provisional results would start to be released from Friday.
Opposition presidential candidate Moise Katumbi, whose team has been compiling its own vote count, said results so far showed him in the lead.
He made the claim in a joint statement with opposition supporters that also alleged widespread irregularities in the conduct of the vote.
The CENI’s decision to extend voting into Thursday at polling stations where voting did not take place on the election day (Wednesday) has been rejected by five other presidential candidates.
They are jointly calling for a full rerun of the vote.
Congo’s powerful Roman Catholic church and the Symocel observer mission, which both deployed thousands of election monitors, have also questioned the move.
“The extension could indeed disrupt the (electoral) process, especially from a legal standpoint,” Symocel coordinator Luc Lutala told reporters.
