Yes, that one. And things are going no better than you’d expect. Al Jazeera says there are complaints of fraud and irregularities and voting might be extended to a third day, and four opposition leaders (not including the opposition frontrunner, Tshisekedi) are already calling for the results to be nullified. I guess the question is not whether Kabila will win, but whether he’ll get to keep it. But I hope the Congolese have had enough of civil wars.
Kabila leads, 18 dead so far.
KINSHASA, Congo — Preliminary results from Congo’s presidential election show incumbent Joseph Kabila leading opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, although the country’s election chief warned only a small percentage of precincts had been counted.
With around 15 percent of votes tallied, Kabila leads with over 1,52 million, around 52 percent, according to results announced Friday. Tshisekedi is second among the 11 candidates with 997,074, or 34 percent.
Election commission president Daniel Ngoy Mulunda released the early results four days after Monday’s vote, after the Election Day was extended for three days to give porters time to transport ballots from the remote corners of this giant nation.
Congo remains on edge after days of violence which left at least 18 dead and seriously wounded 100 more, with most of the deaths caused by troops loyal to Kabila, Human Rights Watch said in Friday.
The violence peaked on Saturday when tens of thousands of people descended on Kinshasa’s airport to welcome home Tshisekedi as he returned from his final campaign tour in the country’s interior. In the government crackdown that followed, at least 14 people were killed, according to the report by the New York-based rights group.
Soldiers fired into the crowd, hitting a 27-year-old mother of five in the head. Among the other victims was a 22-year-old who was shot dead while walking outside a granary near the airport. On Election Day, mobs descended on poling stations. Poll workers were beaten, and vote centers were destroyed.