DRC: Tshisekedi wants to emerge victorious from the electoral chaos he orchestrated

”Unpublished”, for the most optimistic. “Nightmarish” for several observers who already condemn this “ballot of shame” and call for the organization of new elections with a new independent National Electoral Commission (Ceni). In the Western chancelleries in Kinshasa, in the name of a neutrality which turns into a blank check for those in power, they are content to call for calm, acknowledging with lip service that “the vote was sometimes chaotic”.

On the side of power, the chaos born from this botched election is blamed on a few “troublemakers” who “tried to discredit” these elections.

A reading which is shattered by the words of Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, the successor of Laurent Monsengwo, archbishop of Kinshasa who, on the occasion of the Christmas mass in the Notre-Dame du Congo cathedral, launched, in front of a compact crowd: “We have just witnessed what one could call a gigantic, organized, planned disorder.” The prelate continued by expressing his indignation at the violence on voting day. He particularly insisted on these images “unsustainable” on social networks, including a sequence showing the attack on a woman because she had voted for the opposition. “What image do we give of our country on the international scene? ? How can we go so low in this country?” asked the cardinal.

Tshisekedi in the lead

This Sunday, December 24 in the evening, the Ceni was finally able to turn on its beautiful giant electronic board enthroned in its center, installed at the Athénée de la Gombe. The first partial results arrived as the last voters finally finished voting, particularly in the provinces of Sankuru. Because this election of December 20 was in fact held over five days “lack of machines, lack of trained personnel, lack of investment despite the 1.1 billion dollars invested in this election”explains a Katangese observer, angry following the publication of the first trends broadcast alongside the deployment of military battalions in the streets of Lubumbashi, the capital of the Haut-Katanga province.

Images of buses disembarking dozens of soldiers in the center of Lubumbashi were widely distributed on social networks, which have played an important role since December 20. Dozens of videos have made it possible to see the extent of the cheating organized by those in power. These videos show people, most often locked in enclosed spaces, voting for the presidential candidate.

Hours of videos are circulating and seem to explain why, generally, the figures which are displayed at the polling stations (which are not minutes signed by the witnesses of the parties present) are the results obtained directly via the voting machine and not, as provided for in the electoral law, the result obtained after the manual counting of the ballot boxes.

The first figures released within 24 hours give Félix Tshisekedi a considerable lead. But these figures are so excessive in view of the situation on the ground on voting days that they become suspect. One example among many others, the 99% obtained by Félix Tshisekedi in Panzi, stronghold of candidate Denis Mukwege. “It’s either provocation or stupidity”evokes a close friend of Kabila’s FCC.

A first demonstration to call for the cancellation of this election is announced for Wednesday, December 27 in Kinshasa, notably called by candidates Martin Fayulu and Denis Mukwege.

A Belgian expert “commits suicide”

DRC: The dubious “suicide” of a Belgian expert in Kinshasa

Alongside these announcements, we also learned, on the morning of December 24, via a dispatch from the Congolese Press Agency (ACP), of the suicide, at 3 a.m., of a Belgian IT expert from the mission of the European Union who allegedly jumped from the bar on the 12th floor of the Hilton hotel in Kinshasa. The man was part of the European Union expert mission which succeeded the election observation mission which was never deployed on the ground due to the lack of being able to recover the equipment that it had from customs. she wanted to use satellite telephones in particular as part of this mission.

The announcement of this suicide was surprising because, the day before, December 23, a message was circulating in diplomatic circles in Kinshasa which already announced the death of a Belgian expert in his hotel room. Diplomats, including a Belgian, who decided not to communicate, went to the scene to identify the body which bore no visible signs of violence…