Opposition decries flaw as Congo counts votes

Bloomberg

The Democratic Republic of Congo counted ballot papers on Monday after an election that the opposition described as chaotic and flawed, with problems ranging from broken voting machines to delays and vote-buying.
Congolese went to the polls on Sunday to find a successor to long-serving President Joseph Kabila in a vote that was already two years overdue, with Kabila’s protege Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary running for the ruling coalition. He’s challenged by two major opposition alliances headed
by Felix Tshisekedi and Martin Fayulu.
While the vote was mostly peaceful, both opposition groups said their collaborators had registered irregularities across the country, suggesting that some of the disorder was deliberately created by the electoral commission to favour Shadary.
“It was chaos at an organisational level,” Vital Kamerhe, the campaign director of Tshisekedi’s alliance, said. “We weren’t surprised — we knew there was chaos and disorder being prepared. Despite all this, the opposition is still winning.”
Congo, Africa’s biggest copper producer and a key source of minerals essential to the smartphone and electric-vehicle industries, is heading toward its first transition of power through the ballot box since independence in 1960.