Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - "There are data that vary from one source to another. There are seats that have not been accounted for. The only way out of this situation is to publish the minutes of the individual seats", says to Fides Fr. Loris Cattani, a Xaverian missionary, leader of the Peace Network for Congo. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, tension remains high after the lawyers of one of the candidates in the elections held on November 28, Vital Kamerhe, asked the Supreme Court the annulment of the vote, they denounced "a travesty of justice", and left the hall of the Court.
The Court of Justice must decide by 17 December on the validity of the results published by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) that claim outgoing President Kabila as the winner. A victory contested by the opposition, particularly by Kabila's main opponent, Etienne Tshisekedi
"In my opinion if the Church wants to be prophetic it has to publish data that are in the hands of its 30,000 observers and tell the truth, whether it is in favor of the outgoing President or Tshisekedi", said Fr Loris. " INEC’s website has published the results for each seat. If 'Justice and Peace' were able to gather the minutes of its observers and compared them with those of INEC it could contribute to this truth. Even better if the INEC, after putting the results of each seat on-line, put on its site the scanning of the original minutes of the individual seats. In this way absolute transparency would be obtained".
"In short - continues the missionary - in my opinion, we need a recount of votes from the minutes of the polling, conducted with the active involvement of civil society organizations and Churches, which have a strong grip on the Congolese population".
Fr. Loris adds that "this situation was predicted by the International Crisis Group that on May 5 had warned about delays in the preparation of the Congolese elections and proposed to postpone it for a few months, to allow proper organization of the vote. If there had been a better preparation maybe many frauds could have been avoided".
The missionary concludes warning that "the population needs to return to calm in order to live. In Kinshasa the prices of basic necessities have increased and it is also hard to buy food. Not only are the seats of power at stake, but also the future of the Congolese people is at stake". (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 16/12/2011)
