Congo riot police deploy at electoral commission ahead of vote result

Pre-election polls gave businessman Martin Fayulu a healthy lead but his supporters believe President Joseph Kabila plans to rig the vote in favour of his hand-picked candidate, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, or alternatively to forge a power-sharing pact with Felix Tshisekedi, head of the largest opposition party.

Any widespread perception that the election has been stolen could set off a destabilising cycle of unrest, repeating violence that followed elections in 2006 and 2011, many Congolese fear.

The election commission (CENI) said late on Tuesday it had held what it called a series of “evaluation meetings and deliberations”, after which it would “proceed to the publication of provisional results from the presidential election”.

“We don’t want people to die when they announce (the results), blood to be spilled,” said Kinshasa resident Ohn Kabamba. “We are fed up, we are tired and we are waiting for a peaceful announcement which will allow us to rejoice rather than cry.”

“If the CENI announces the true results of the ballot boxes it will be calm but if not, I don’t know what will happen,” said another Kinshasa resident, Abraham Tumba.

A CENI source and a diplomat said they expected results to be announced later on Wednesday, and journalists were summoned to the CENI headquarters at around 3 p.m. (1400 GMT).

Kabila had wanted to hand over to Shadary when he stands down this month after 18 years in power – two years after the official end of his mandate.

But polls suggested the former interior minister was trailing both Tshisekedi and frontrunner Fayulu ahead of the Dec. 30 poll, a contest that was meant to result in the first democratic transfer of power in Congo’s 59 years of independence.

The Roman Catholic Church, which helped monitor the poll, has said there was a clear winner in the vote but refrained from saying who it thought had won. It has been working behind the scenes in the strongly Catholic central African country to secure a peaceful transfer of power.