DRC Elections: Tshisekedi in Early Lead

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Felix Tshisekedi is leading his opponents in the recently-concluded presidential election.

Congo’s electoral body, CENI, on Sunday started releasing results from the presidential polls, showing Tshisekedi leading with over 80% in many areas especially in the central region.

Tshisekedi beat his opponents in Mambasa, Mankanza, Isiro Ville, Bunia and Wamba among others.

Election results from the Diaspora also showed that the incumbent is ahead of his rivals with a very wide margin. 

The second Vice President of the CENI, Didier Manara, said the body “will publish results of province by province by comparing the results on paper and what we have in the electronic voting system.”

The opposition parties claimed the election exercise was marred by irregularities; and delayed deployment of voting kits.

However, CENI said it has extended the voting period for 24 hours to cater for “delay recorded in the deployment of certain electoral materials and equipment which, consequently, caused the late opening of some Polling and Counting Stations (BVD).”

Manara said “for the first time in the history of the DRC, the country organised elections with its own funds. For the first time the constitutional deadline was respected.”

He added: “The people who talk about chaos are not Congolese.”

DRC remains largely peaceful with isolated cases of violence.

This year, more than 40 million voters in DRC and the diaspora were expected to vote to fill 1,511 seats from a selection of more than 100,000 candidates. 

Ahead of the elections, a poll conducted by GeoPoll said the majority of the voters were willing to support a second term for President Felix Tshisekedi and saw no alternative candidate deserving of their vote.

According to the poll, “most Congolese people are thoroughly dissatisfied with the state of the country, with unemployment, insecurity, infrastructure and food prices the most mentioned challenges.”

Yet, the poll showed, “Perceptions have not, however, deteriorated further in the past year – in fact there are signs of marginal improvement, particularly in response to the ongoing implementation of universal free education.”

The opposition remained divided and were unable to align in time for the polls.

Tshisekedi faces 18 challengers in the race including Martin Fayulu, wealthy businessman and former Katanga province governor, Moïse Katumbi and Dr Denis Mukwege.