The joint Christian civil society, CENCO-ECC have declared the 2023 General Elections unconstitutional for having been held outside the law prescribed schedule.
The CENCO-ECC in its preliminary report has noted several irregularities in the elections whose organization contradicted the provisions of the Congolese constitution.
The Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) extended the voting from the initial 20th December to five more days to accommodate for thousands of the electorate who could not cast their votes on the actual polling day due to various errors.
“Basically, the organization of the polls after December 20, 2023 is in contradiction with certain relevant provisions of article 52 of the Electoral Law which specifies that the vote should take place on a Sunday or a public holiday” the CENCO-ECC preliminary report reads.
“Here, the day of December 21, 2023 is neither a Sunday nor a public holiday. It is urgent that the authorized bodies assess the legality of the voting operations which took place on December 21, 2023. The vote lasted until December 27, 2023 , while Communiqué 084 mentioned above clearly states that no polling station should open after December 21, 2023. It is therefore necessary to determine the fate reserved by the CENI and other authorized bodies to the votes collected after the December 21, 2023.”
The CENCO-ECC have since advised the CENI and the Constitutional Court to carefully consider the impact of the irregularities that have affected the electoral process to ensure the results will be legitimate.
