The South African Observer Mission (SAOM) to the July 30 Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) presidential and parliamentary elections says it is happy with progress made in capturing the results, despite difficulties at the start of the process.
DRC Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chairperson Apollonaire Malumalu had now confirmed that 94% of the presidential results and 44% of the parliamentary results have been captured, the SAOM said in a statement on Tuesday.
With only 6% of the presidential results outstanding, the DRC IEC was expected to release the provisional results on August 20, as originally planned.
The SAOM also welcomed a report by the Congolese National Episcopal Conference of the Catholic Church, which said there had been a massive voter turnout.
The leader of the Congolese Catholic Church, Archbishop Laurent Mosengwo, congratulated the IEC for what he described as ”a well-organised election”, called for transparency during the counting process and urged leaders of political parties and their supporters to respect the outcome of the elections.
The SAOM was also encouraged by the cooperation and support the DRC IEC continued to receive from the political parties contesting the elections, all of whom had committed to respect the outcome and abide by the electoral laws governing the elections in event of disputes.
The final results of the presidential elections will only be announced on August 30 by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after the completion of all legal processes attendant to the elections, the mission said.
The 108-member SAOM to the DRC elections was the largest ever to be dispatched by the South African government.
They were deployed in all eleven provinces of the DRC and observed all phases of the elections, including pre-election campaigns, the voting process and the counting of votes. — Sapa