Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) President Dénis Kadima Kazadi is struggling to show cause for the figures of 2023 presidential election results that he has announced so far.
CENI have so far announced over 2.7 million votes counted from different regions with incumbent Fèlix Tshisekedi taking an overwhelming lead.
However, CENI President Dénis Kadima Kazadi has not been able to give a comphrensive figure of the polling stations that had opened to the public to cast their votes.
In an interview, Kadima could not ascertain how many polling stations among the 75,400 planned to have been opened so far and said he was unable to give the exact figures due to the difficulties encountered on the ground by some CENI agents.
“There are some of our agents who finished the elections, they organized the polls, but they couldn’t even leave the place because along the way they were attacked. When we see them with the machine , we think they are going to a politician. Some are hidden in the bush, others we have sent helicopters, we have called the Ministry of Defense, we have sent helicopters to help them. In fact, it’s a bit like a war situation,” Kadima said.
“We must understand that here, we are the victim, we are not the executioners. So, I am unable to give you these figures because there are machines, you have seen, which were broken, broken in front of everyone and in a spectacular way. I don’t know what else we can get out of these machines, and our agents couldn’t even get back on the road to go to the antennas because they were being chased. It’s a bit complicated, you think they’re the originators of what was happening, but in reality it’s the politicians who have these things.”
This electoral process is strongly criticized by the opposition who have cited the irregularities and failures recorded on voting day, as well as the extension of the voting day beyond December 20, which, according to them, favors cheating for the benefit of the candidate for Tshisekedi’s re-election.
