Democratic Republic of Congo’s electoral commission accused the country’s Catholic Church on Friday of “preparing an insurrection” by saying it knows the winner of last Sunday’s presidential election.
The commission is scheduled to release provisional results on Sunday but has said there could be delays because of the slow arrival of tally sheets.
Donatien Nshole, the secretary-general of the Church’s bishops’ conference, known as CENCO, said on Thursday its vote tallies showed a clear victor in the Dec. 30 election, a pronouncement widely seen as a warning to authorities against rigging the vote.
“The announcement of voting trends by Priest Nshole is likely to brainwash the population while preparing an insurrection that CENCO alone will be responsible for,” commission president Corneille Nangaa wrote in a letter to CENCO president Marcel Utembi, seen by Reuters.
Nangaa said CENCO’s declaration violated electoral law and a code of conduct signed by poll monitors that gives the electoral commission, CENI, alone the authority to announce results.