There is an uneasy quiet in Kinshasa as the city braces for impending bloodshed. Results of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s second democratic elections, which took place this week, are due to be announced on Tuesday – an announcement likely to spark chaos.
Late yesterday afternoon, presidential candidate Etienne Tshisekedi called a press conference at his residence in Limité, Kinshasa, where he slammed Independent National Electoral Commission president Daniel Ngoy Mulunda, and rejected the preliminary results. He warned Mulunda that “he will be held responsible for what happens in this country”. He told his supporters to be “vigilant” and urged them to “wait until I give the word” before taking action.
Preliminary results released late Friday put incumbent Joseph Kabila ahead of Tshisekedi. With 33% of the vote counted from the country’s 63000 polling stations and released by the election commission, Kabila has 50% of the vote compared to Tshisekedi’s 34%. However, votes from Kinshasa, which is Tshisekedi’s stronghold, have yet to be counted.
The week saw many Congolese leave the country as panic and fear set in. One woman, who asked not to be named, took her daughter out of the American International School, an expensive private school also attended by Kabila’s children.
The woman said: “Kabila has taken his children out … no one is at school … if they see that Kabila’s children are not there, it means there is going to be trouble.” She has left for neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville. Others have left for Europe and Canada.
Full Article: DRC on a knife edge as vote result looms – Times LIVE.
