On Nov. 28, the Democratic Republic of Congo cast its presidential vote. On Wednesday, opponents to President Joseph Kabila began calling for mass protests, claiming that victory was taken from Etiene Tshisekedi by intentional vote rigging, as reported by AFP.
Four people were killed in Kinshasa following looting and unrest after the announcement that Kabila took 49 percent of the vote, compared to local favorite Tshisekedi.
Following is a timeline of the election crisis.
December 5: Kinshasa Residents Flee
Over the weekend, residents fearing conflict crossed the Congo into the neighboring Republic of Congo's capital Brazzaville in droves. As many as 3,000 people left, according to Yahoo 7 News report. The presidential guard was deployed to Lubumbashi in the southeast, and a curfew was installed in Kasai Oriental, another Tshisekedi stronghold.
December 9: CENI Declares Kabila Winner
The Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) certified Joseph Kabila had won another five-year term, igniting protests in the capital, as reported by elsewhere by Yahoo.
December 10: The Carter Center Says Election Results Lack Credibility
The Carter Center, which sent 70 observers in 26 teams to DR Congo, noted that 2,000 polling station results were lost in Kinshasa, a Tshisekedi stronghold, and that voter turnouts of 99 to 100 percent were recorded in Katanga, where Kabila drew almost all of his vote.
December 12: MONUSCO Expresses Concerns
The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) issued a press release stating that they have "deep concerns" regarding the findings of observer missions, acknowledging that among their concerns are vote counting and tabulation procedures.
The BBC also reported that Kabila held a news conference countering the Center's claims, saying though mistakes were made, they Center had "definitely gone far beyond what was expected." He suggested that his poor standing in eastern provinces served to demonstrate that transparency had been better than in 2006.
December 13: EU Criticizes DR Vote
The EU sent 147 observers throughout the 905,568 square mile country, Africa's second largest, per another AFP article. They referred to the compilation as "chaotic" and said that polling station results they had seen did not match what the team had seen.
December 20: Swearing In Ceremony
Kabila, who has been president for 10 years, will be sworn in on December 20 if his win has been confirmed by the Supreme Court.
Shawn Humphrey is a former contributor to The Flint Journal and an amateur Africanist, focusing his personal studies on human rights and political issues on the continent.
There are no comments yet