Congo opposition parties said election officials are trying to provoke trouble by delaying Sunday’s scheduled presidential election, and warned they would not tolerate any move to further postpone the contest.
The country’s electoral board, CENI had yesterday announced that the election, which has been delayed several times since 2016, will now take place on Dec. 30 due to a fire last week that destroyed voting materials.
The poll is meant to choose a successor to President Joseph Kabila, who is due to step down after 18 years in what would be Congo’s first democratic transition.
Felix Tshisekedi, a leading opposition candidate in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s presidential contest, accused the CENI of trying to provoke the opposition supporters to protest in order to later accuse them of inciting trouble.
Kabila’s refusal to step down when his mandate officially expired in December 2016 sparked violent protests in which security forces killed dozens of people and contributed to a spike in militia violence across the country.
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