Incumbent president has just over 50% share of vote, but opponents accuse him of trying to engineer 'carnage'
Congo's president, seeking a second term in a nation reeling from poverty, was leading in early results but his opponents insisted he step aside and accused him of trying to engineer "carnage."
Joseph Kabila had 50.3% of the vote in early results from an election marred by technical problems and accusations of favouritism. Analysts had predicted he would win because the opposition candidates are likely to split the vote.
In a show of unity, the 10 opposition parties held a press conference and accused Kabila of attempting to engineer a situation like Kenya, Zimbabwe or the Ivory Coast, all countries where rulers used the army to try to silence dissent and cling to power after losing at the polls.
"I think that Joseph Kabila could go down in history ... if he were to say 'I'm a good sport and I lost,'" said opposition candidate Vital Kamerhe, a former speaker of Parliament. "He is preparing carnage."
International observers noted irregularities in the vote, including possible instances of fraud, but most said the shortcomings seemed to be due to technical glitches rather than a systematic attempt to rig the poll.
Due to bad weather, planes carrying ballots did not take off in time to reach the remote interior of the gigantic nation. Monday's vote had to be extended for three days in order to give porters time to reach the distant corners of Congo.
Province by province tallies released on Saturday amounted to 33% of all voting bureaus, showing Kabila ahead with 3.27 million of the 6.48 million votes counted so far. Opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi was trailing with 2.23 million votes, or 34.4%.
The gap between them is likely to close when results from Kinshasa are released. Poll workers in the four warehouses processing votes were visibly overwhelmed.
Sacks of ballots were brought in on the backs of poll workers. There were so many they had to be piled in the parking lot outside. Some had split open, and ballots had fallen into the mud or the cement floor of the warehouse, where they were being trampled by election workers.
On Friday, under 5% of the ballots in one of the four warehouses had been processed, said one worker who asked not to be named. The election official complained that they were not being brought food or water, and several of the poll workers were asleep.
The results released from Kinshasa represent only 3% of the capital's precincts. In the small sample that was released, Tshisekedi had so far received roughly twice as many votes as Kabila. Over 3 million voters are registered in Kinshasa, so Tshisekedi may be able to catch Kabila.
Still, the opposition has clearly been hurt by its inability to unite behind a single candidate. In the results released so far, nearly a million votes had been cast for the nine opposition candidates besides the 78-year-old Tshisekedi.The opposition leaders said they are seeking a group of "African sages" to act as mediators in order to tell Kabila to step aside.