Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jan 2, 2019 / 17:56 pm
The Catholic Bishops' Conference in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is drawing attention to voting problems that could call into question the outcome of a presidential election that has already been delayed two years.
In a Dec. 31 statement, the bishops' conference voiced concern about voting irregularities, including registered voters who were turned away from polling stations because their names were not on voting lists and election observers being expelled from polling stations by police officers.
The DRC bishops' conference was among the organizations that sent election observers to polling locations around the country, commissioning more than 40,000 observers to report on the election process.
Conference officials also noted that an estimated 1 million people were unable to vote due to a deadly Ebola outbreak in some regions of the nation, with voting in some affected cities delayed until March, well after the new president is scheduled to take office.