Congo releases its first provisional election results after a messy vote.

Following an unplanned poll extension that lasted a whole day, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) announced a few preliminary results from the general elections on Friday. This delay has caused several opposition candidates to express their displeasure and demand a repeat of the election.

There were just a few thousand votes in the Congolese diaspora, and the provisional results revealed that President Felix Tshisekedi had a substantial advantage over his opponents.

The results of the elections held within Congo by its approximately 44 million registered voters will be made public beginning on Saturday, according to the CENI electoral body.

During a news conference held in Kinshasa, the country’s capital, CENI President Denis Kadima once again refuted criticisms by the opposition and independent observers, who said that the prolonged vote had been chaotic and lacked legitimacy.

In Africa’s second-biggest country, the world’s third-largest copper producer, and the top producer of cobalt, a critical component in electric vehicle batteries, controversial elections have frequently generated unrest. In addition, the country is the world’s most significant producer of cobalt.

The presidential and legislative elections scheduled to take place on Wednesday were thrown off because of problems with the equipment and delays in the delivery of election kits. Additionally, it was challenging for people to find their names on the registers, and violent crimes in some areas disrupted the voting process.

Small-scale demonstrations took place on Friday in eastern Lubero territory, where a failure to provide voting materials to distant locations resulted in 17,000 people still being unable to cast their ballots. These demonstrations served to highlight the widespread nature of the delays. The voting will take place on Saturday, according to a spokesman for CENI for Lubero, who spoke with Reuters.

The Carter Center, a United States election monitoring organization, made its first comment on the election on Friday. They stated that “there was a lack of confidence in the process, stemming in part from previous elections as well as from gaps in transparency, especially regarding the voter register.”

The process of voting for specific candidates was prolonged until Thursday, which prompted five contenders for the opposition presidential nomination to demand a fresh election, arguing that the delay violated the Constitution.

The Congolese independent observer groups and the opposition have both stated that the voting process was conducted in a manner that might potentially damage the legitimacy of the results.

In Kinshasa, the CENI established a results center called Basolo, which translates to “truth” in the Lingala language. At this center, it is stated that the results from each polling station will be shared with the public as they are received. The opposition and members of civil society argue that the lack of transparency during the most recent elections made fraud possible, so they are making this fundamental demand.

The CENI has established a deadline of December 31 for publishing full provisional results; however, it is unclear whether this deadline will be altered due to the unexpected extension of the voting period.

To ensure the process is credible, the Carter Center requested that the commission publish the results at the local level and upload them from polling stations to its website.

Didi Manara, the commission’s vice president, stated on Thursday that the logistical problems that occurred on election day were outside the control of the CENI and had nothing to do with poor preparation. He made this statement while speaking on Top Congo FM, a radio station.

During the election that took place in 2011, he mentioned that some areas of the Congo had allowed voters to cast their ballots on a second day.

According to estimates from the Carter Center, the tumultuous election day that took place culminated in a campaign that was also characterized by violence and resulted in the deaths of at least 19 people.

In a statement released on Thursday, Moise Katumbi, the opposition’s presidential candidate, stated that the results thus far indicated him to be in the lead. His team has been watching the vote count.

The powerful Catholic Church of the Congo has sent out more than 25,000 observers as part of the observer mission to compile election results. A similar action was taken by them during the 2018 election, when they challenged the results of the vote count conducted by the CENI.

After a first five years in power defined by economic hardship and spiraling insecurity in Congo’s rebel-plagued east, the vote will determine whether or not Tshisekedi serves a second term as president.