Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jan 10, 2019 / 10:55 am
The bishops of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are among several major observers casting doubt on the results of the nation's Dec. 30 presidential elections.
"[T]he results of the presidential election as published by the CENI [National Election Commission] do not correspond to the data collected by our observation mission from the polling and counting stations," said the standing committee of the DRC bishops' conference in a Jan. 10 statement.
Overnight, the National Election Commission announced that opposition party leader Felix Tshisekedi had won the presidential election with 38.57 percent of the vote, just surpassing former oil executive Martin Fayulu, who had 34.8 percent.
The two major opposition candidates both finished well ahead of former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, who had been officially backed by outgoing President Joseph Kabila but had never gained traction during the campaign.