Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - "The situation is calm, but there is also tension awaiting the election results", said local Church sources to Fides from Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where yesterday, November 28 , presidential and parliamentary elections were held. "The election day was marked by tensions and violence in some areas of the country and various organizational problems", the sources told Fides. "It should be noted however, that the DRC is a huge State, with no inter-provincial roads and other infrastructures".
According to media reports, some people were killed in Lubumbashi, capital of Katanga (south-east), while other accidents took place in Kasai. There were also serious delays in the opening of polling stations.
On the eve of the vote, in a statement which Fides received, the Peace Network for Congo, had denounced, among other things, "the prevarication of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept the opposition’s demands to control the voters lists and the central computer system, the various deficiencies noted during the preparation of the election (registration of minors, people of dubious nationality and military in the electoral lists, duplication, the creation of fictitious polling stations ...), the delayed publication of the voters lists and polling stations, in the preparation and distribution of election materials (boxes, ballot boxes, ballot papers ...), the suspicions of electoral fraud "were among the main finding in the pre-election campaign. "These events may have contributed to create a climate of tension, nervousness, suspicion and uncertainty among the population," said the note from the network promoted by the missionaries.
According to AP agency the voting has been extended to today, to allow those voters who did not vote yesterday due to organizational delays, to do it today. Our sources have not confirmed this extension. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 29/11/2011)
