AFRICA/CONGO DR - The tension is very high in Kinshasa while awaiting the announcement of the winner of the presidential elections

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - "The tension is high, even if one lives in an almost unreal silence, because the traffic is reduced and the vendors who are usually stationed in the city streets seem to have disappeared. Several people have not gone to work and there is fear of violent clashes", said to Fides local Church sources from Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where in the evening today, December 6, the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), should make the results of presidential elections held on November 28 public. Within a week the Supreme Court should confirm the results presented by INEC.
The people expect the worst because the candidate of the opposition, Etienne Tshisekedi, said that according to the data he collected, it seems he has won the election, while the partial data the INEC has published so far indicate that the outgoing President, Joseph Kabila, will be re-elected (according to the INEC Kabila he is leading with 46.4% of the votes cast, exceeding by about 1.3 million votes, Tshisekedi who has obtained so far 36.2%). The police and army patrol Kinshasa with armored vehicles. Who has had the opportunity, has left the town for days, taking refuge in the villages of origin. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 06/12/2011)