(IMAGE SOURCE: Wikimedia Commons)
 

BY CHRISTIAN BRYANT

Outrage has erupted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with protesters claiming the country’s recent presidential election was corrupt.

Joseph Kabila, who has been president since 2001, beat out Etienne Tshisekedi with 49 percent of the vote to Tshisekedi’s 32 percent. But Tshisekedi rejected the Nov. 28th election results, and his supporters are protesting.

The BBC explains that Tshisekedi’s next move is crucial, because 21 people have been killed in protests so far.

Wendy Urquhart: “Mr. Tshisekedi has appealed for calm but if he decides to call for protests, his supporters will take to the streets in droves and that could lead to a dangerous escalation of violence... He can, and probably will, take his grievance to the supreme court to challenge the election results.”

Still, supporters of Kabila have been celebrating his win. Al Jazeera reports that despite Tshisekedi’s cries of foul play, partial results showed that Kabila was the favorite.

“Kabila had an insurmountable lead. It was a when, not if, he would be declared winner.”

So, did anything go wrong at the polls? The Carter Center, a non-profit organization, says the election process was flawed.

“ … the quality and integrity of the vote tabulation process has varied across the country, ranging from the proper application of procedures to serious irregularities, including the loss of nearly 2,000 polling station results in Kinshasa. ...multiple locations... reported impossibly high rates of 99 to 100 percent voter turnout...”

The Carter Center’s David Pottie tells CNN that the disorganization of the elections made it tough for voters to cast their ballots.

David Pottie: “There were a great many irregularities and difficulties for voters to find their polling stations because the polling station identification had been done late in the process and was incomplete... They were opening bags of materials. They were redoing paperwork and basically breaking the chain-of-custody, such as it is.”

And it’s important for things to get sorted out -- not just for politics, but for safety. The Christian Science Monitor writes:

“ … a failed election in Congo has the potential to extend human suffering in the country, to delay the kind of development that could put Congo on par with other fast-growing African neighbors, and to encourage meddling from its stronger neighbors.”