CENCO-ECC Observation Mission have failed to declare the DR Congo 2023 General Elections as legitimate after noting several irregularities during the electoral process.
On Thursday, the joint Christian civil society released a preliminary report on the polls that were held on 20th December and later unlawfully extended upto five more days creating more room for irregularities in the process.
While the election has been evidently shambolic, the Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) have adamantly gone ahead to release results that have been in great favour of incumbent Fèlix Tshisekedi.
However, the CENCO-ECC are advising the CENI, Constitutional Court and other Judicial Bodies to thoroughly consider the findings of several irregularities that characterized the election and affects the legitimacy of the results.
Some of the irregularities noted by the CENCO-ECC include as many as 247 cases of vote buying, 49 incidents of ballot stuffing and 19 ballot booths were not in existence despite CENI having indicted so.
The report has further exposed CENI’s inability to organize a flawless electoral process with 2062 cases of disfunctioning of voting equipment at various polling stations.
The five opposition candidates including Moïse Katumbi, Martin Fayulu and Dénis Mukwenge have contested the legitimacy of the results that have so far being released by CENI proclaiming Tshisekedi to be in the lead by an insane margin of 76% with his closest challenger handed just 16% of the vote.
Calls for the cancellation of the election have since grown, with the opposition and the Congolese population holding protests that are likely to continue in the coming days.
