The Democratic Republic of Congo’s government had on Tuesday proscribed an opposition protest scheduled for Wednesday over last week’s disorganised national election as early results revealed that President Felix Tshisekedi was in the lead.
The five opposition presidential candidates had called for the joint protest in the capital city, Kinshasa over reported election inconsistencies.
But the government just today banned the event, saying that it did not have a legitimate basis and was intended at sabotaging the electoral process while the election commission was still collating results.
The protest organizers had at this time of making this report, responded to the ban announcement.
The protest organisers have heavily criticised the resolution of the election commission known as CENI to draw outvoting at polling stations that failed to open on election day, calling it unlawful and demanding a full re-run of the election.
Some independent observers also said the extension compromised the credibility of the vote.
CENI has however, dismissed those concerns and began releasing results over the weekend and its latest tally put Tshisekedi ahead of his 18 opponents with almost 79% of around 3.2 million votes counted so far.
Businessman Moise Katumbi and an ex-energy executive, Martin Fayulu were second and third respectively with about 17% and just over 1%.
The commission has yet to disclose how many of the approximately 44 million registered voters voted nor has it given any indication of what the latest given nber represents in relation to the total number of votes.
Katumbi has meanwhile, called for CENI’s head to tender his resignation letter.
Africa as usual