People in the Democratic Republic of Congo have begun voting in a presidential election that could bring the troubled country’s first peaceful, democratic transfer of power.

People in the Democratic Republic of Congo have begun voting in a presidential election that could bring the troubled country’s first peaceful, democratic transfer of power.

Voters go to polls in DR Congo presidential election

Some unrest is feared after a last-minute decision to bar an estimated one million people from voting because of a deadly Ebola virus outbreak in the country’s east.

The decision has been widely criticised as threatening the credibility of the election.

Two main opposition candidates, Martin Fayulu and Felix Tshisekedi, are challenging President Joseph Kabila’s preferred successor, former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, who is under sanctions from the European Union.

Amid rainy weather in the capital, Kinshasa, Mr Kabila and Mr Shadary voted at the central Gombe Institute polling station.

“My message today to my compatriots is to come and vote for their candidates and brave the rain,” said Mr Kabila.

Mr Shadary called for “peace and calm”, adding: “I am very confident in victory because the Congolese people will trust me, I campaigned all over the country.”

DR Congo’s 40 million registered voters are using electronic voting machines with touch screens for the first time amid opposition concerns that the results could be manipulated.

Some observers have said voting materials did not reach some polling stations in time.

At stake is a country rich in minerals including those crucial to the world’s smartphones and electric cars, and yet DR Congo remains desperately underdeveloped. Corruption and insecurity are widespread. </s> KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — The Latest on Congo's presidential election (all times local):

Amid rainy weather, Congo's outgoing President Joseph Kabila and his chosen successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, have voted in the country's presidential election.

After voting, Kabila urged others to vote: "My message today to my compatriots is to come and vote for their candidates and brave the rain."

Shadary called for "peace and calm," adding "I am very confident in victory because the Congolese people will trust me, I campaigned all over the country."

Polls opened and people began voting in Congo for the long-delayed presidential election, amid worries over the exclusion of three cities from the voting.

"We declare the polling station open" said Francoise Ntadianga Tshiela, head of the the Gombe Institute voting center in the heart of Kinshasa, surrounded by embassies and government offices.

Some unrest is feared in the election after a last-minute decision to bar an estimated 1 million people from voting because of a deadly Ebola virus outbreak in the east. The decision has been widely criticized as threatening the credibility of the election.

Two main opposition candidates, Martin Fayulu and Felix Tshisekedi, are challenging President Joseph Kabila's preferred successor, the European Union-sanctioned former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary.

AP writers Saleh Mwanimilongo and Mathilde Boussion contributed to this from Kinshasa, Congo. </s> The announcement of the results of the Congo's presidential election has been postponed, the country's top electoral official said.

The winner of the Dec. 30 election will not be made public Sunday as expected, the head of the national electoral commission Corneille Nangaa told The Associated Press. The electoral commission will confirm the delay later Sunday.

The postponement in announcing the winner may increase tensions, as some Congolese see it as a way for President Joseph Kabila's ruling party to manipulate the results in order to cling to power.

The Catholic Church, an influential voice in this strongly Catholic nation, said that it already knows there is a clear victor, according to data reported by its 40,000 election observers deployed in polling stations. The church urged the electoral commission to announce accurate results.

As regulations say only the electoral commission can announce election results, the church did name the winner. The government has already cut internet access across the vast Central African country to prevent any speculation on social media about who might have won the election.

Congo faces what could be its first democratic, peaceful transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. Election observers and the opposition have raised concerns about voting irregularities as the country chooses a successor to longtime ruler Kabila, although a landslide win by one of the opposition candidates could remove any doubts that the election was skewed to the ruling party's candidate.

The United States and the African Union, among others, have urged Congo to release results that reflect the true will of the people. The U.S. has threatened sanctions against those who undermine the democratic process. Western election observers were not invited to watch the vote.

While Congo has been largely calm on and after the Dec. 30 vote, President Donald Trump informed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that about 80 military personnel and "appropriate combat equipment" had been deployed to neighboring Gabon to support the security of U.S. citizens and staffers and diplomatic facilities. More will be deployed as needed to Gabon, Congo or neighboring Republic of Congo, he wrote.

Ahead of the vote, the U.S. ordered "non-emergency" government employees and family members to leave the country.

Congo's ruling party, which backs Kabila's preferred candidate Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, has called the church's attitude "irresponsible and anarchist."

Leading opposition candidate Martin Fayulu, a businessman and lawmaker, has accused Congolese authorities of impeding his campaign. His campaign manager, Pierre Lumbi, on Saturday accused the electoral commission of being "in the process of postponing the publication of the results."

The delay is because of the slow compilation of the results by electoral officials. By Friday evening, the commission had compiled only 44 percent of results, said Jean-Pierre Kalamba, who said the process had been slowed by the requirement that only manually counted ballots could be used.

At stake is a vast country rich in the minerals that power the world's mobile phones and laptops, yet desperately underdeveloped. Some 40 million people were registered to vote, though at the last minute about 1 million voters were barred by the electoral commission which cited a deadly Ebola virus outbreak in eastern Congo. The eastern region is an opposition center and critics said the disenfranchisement of voters there undermines the election's credibility.

The presidential election took place more than two years behind schedule, while a court ruled that Kabila could stay in office until the vote was held. The delay led to sometimes deadly protests as authorities cracked down, and Shadary is now under European Union sanctions for his role in the crackdown as interior minister at the time.

Kabila, who took office in 2001 after his father was assassinated, is barred from serving three consecutive terms but has hinted that he could run again in 2023. That has led many Congolese to suspect that he will rule from the shadows if Shadary takes office.

Internet and text messaging services were cut off the day after the election in an apparent effort by the government to prevent social media speculation about the results. The U.S. has urged the government to restore internet service, and a U.N. human rights spokeswoman has warned that "these efforts to silence dissent could backfire considerably when the results are announced." </s> KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — The African Union continental body issued a surprise last-minute demand late Thursday for Congo's government to suspend the announcement of final results of the disputed presidential election, citing "serious doubts."

Congo's constitutional court is poised to rule as early as Friday on a challenge filed by the election's declared runner-up. Martin Fayulu has requested a recount, alleging fraud. Upholding the results could spark violence in a country hoping for its first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence in 1960.

The AU statement said heads of state and government agreed to "urgently dispatch" a high-level delegation to Congo to find "a way out of the post-electoral crisis" in the vast Central African nation rich in the minerals key to smartphones and electric cars around the world.

"This is truly incredible," tweeted Jason Stearns, director of the Congo Research Group at New York University. "Usually, the African Union defers to the subregion ... in this case they departed dramatically."

Congo faces the extraordinary situation of an election allegedly rigged in favor of the opposition. There was no immediate government comment.

Fayulu accuses the administration of outgoing President Joseph Kabila of falsifying the results to declare opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi the winner after the ruling party candidate did poorly. Fayulu has cited figures compiled by the influential Catholic Church's 40,000 election observers that found he won 61 percent of the vote.

Two sets of leaked data show that Fayulu won the election by a landslide, according to an investigation published this week by Radio France International and other media working with the Congo Research Group.

In the first set of data, attributed to Congo's electoral commission and representing 86 percent of the votes, Fayulu won 59.4 percent while Tshisekedi received 19 percent. The second set of data, from the Catholic Church's mission, represents 43 percent of the votes. In it, Tshisekedi and ruling party candidate Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary each received less than 20 percent.

Fayulu, a lawmaker and businessman who is outspoken about cleaning up Congo's sprawling corruption, is widely seen as posing more of a threat to Kabila, his allies and the vast wealth they have amassed. Tshisekedi, the son of charismatic opposition leader Etienne who died in 2017, is relatively untested and has said little since the Dec. 30 election.

The AU statement was issued after Congo's foreign minister and deputy prime minister briefed "a number of heads of state and government" from across the continent on the crisis. It said some of the heads of state would join the AU Commission chair, Moussa Faki Mahamat, in the urgent mission to Congo.

Pressure from African nations is seen as having more of an impact on Congo's government, which was annoyed by Western pressure during more than two years of turbulent election delays.

The AU statement reflects serious concern by states about the threat of more unrest in Congo that could spill across borders and destabilize its many neighbors.

But countries have wavered on how to address the crisis. The AU statement came hours after the 16-nation Southern African Development Community backed off its earlier demand for an election recount, instead urging the international community to respect Congo's sovereignty. It stressed the need for stability in a country where conflicts over the past two decades have killed millions of people.

The AU statement noted that SADC leaders attended the wider continental talks.

Congo's election had been meant to take place in late 2016, and many Congolese worried that Kabila, in power since 2001, was seeking a way to stay in office. Barred from serving three consecutive terms, Kabila already has hinted he might run again in 2023.

Election observers reported multiple problems, including the last-minute barring of some 1 million voters in the east, with the electoral commission blaming a deadly Ebola outbreak. That alone undermines the election's credibility, some observers said.

All of the election results, not just the presidential ones, have been widely questioned after Kabila's ruling coalition won a majority in legislative and provincial votes while its presidential candidate finished a distant third. </s> Voters in Democratic Republic of Congo stage protest election after being barred over Ebola outbreak

They were barred from voting in Congo's presidential election, but they voted anyway.



More than 10,000 people lined up in Beni to stage their own presidential election, after the electoral commission made the surprise decision to bar more than 1 million voters in Beni and Butembo last week — cities in eastern Congo affected by a deadly Ebola outbreak.

The vast Central African nation is choosing a successor to President Joseph Kabila after his 17 years in power.

Voting in the Ebola-affected cities of Beni and Butembo was delayed until March, long after Congo's new leader will be inaugurated in January.

Protests followed the decision as people demanded to vote with the rest of the country and attacked Ebola facilities.

The decision was widely criticised as threatening the credibility of the election and putting health workers in danger as people protest.

People in Beni cast paper ballots and sang in Swahili saying "voting is our right and nobody can stop us", and vowed to deliver the results of their own election to the electoral commission.

They washed their hands before voting as a protection against Ebola, which is spread via infected bodily fluids.

The election had been delayed since late 2016, prompting the Opposition to assert that Mr Kabila was trying to stay on past his mandate.

Lengthy voting delays were reported across Congo on Sunday, marring the presidential election the country hoped would be its first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence in 1960.

Among some 21 candidates, the top opposition leaders are Martin Fayulu and Felix Tshisekedi, who are challenging Mr Kabila's preferred successor, former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary.

Mr Shadary is currently under European Union sanctions for human rights sanctions.

Mr Tshisekedi said some polling stations in Kinshasa, the capital, had not even opened six hours after voting began.

He accused Congo's Government of deliberately creating an election day mess to spark a court challenge that could allow Mr Kabila to extend his time in power.

Two people have also reported to have been killed over alleged voting fraud in the eastern town of Walungu.

A police officer shot and killed a young man at the polling place and the crowd then beat the officer to death, according to a politician and a witness.

The voting machines that Congo was using for the first time posed a special problem: many of the country's 40 million voters have never used a computer, and electricity is limited.

The Opposition also warned that the machines could be used to manipulate the vote.

The Catholic church's election observer mission said it had received 544 reports of malfunctioning voting machines.

It also reported 115 cases of election observers being kicked out of polling centres or not being allowed access, as well as 44 cases of vote-buying or corruption.

Nearly 50 polling stations in Kinshasa were idle for hours because lists of registered voters had not been delivered — the sprawling city is an opposition stronghold.

Another observer group, Symotel, reported a multitude of problems including the movement of polling stations to new locations at the last minute, which meant confused voters did not know where to go.

"We knew there would be issues, but this is way beyond what we expected," a spokesperson for the group Luc Lutala said.

Election day in the capital began with a heavy rainstorm that flooded some streets.

A number of Congolese remained in line at poll-closing time, and by law would be able to vote.

Although electoral officials had estimated that people could vote in under a minute, the process was taking several minutes or more per person.

At stake is a country rich in minerals including those crucial to the world's smartphones and electric cars, and yet Congo remains desperately underdeveloped with widespread corruption and insecurity. </s> The ruling coalition of Congo's outgoing President Joseph Kabila has won a large majority of national assembly seats, the electoral commission announced early Saturday, while the presidential election runner-up was poised to file a court challenge alleging fraud.

The national assembly majority sharply reduces the chances of dramatic reforms under the declared presidential election winner, opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi. The election runner-up, Martin Fayulu, has accused Tshisekedi of a backroom deal with Kabila to win power in the mineral-rich nation as the ruling party candidate did poorly.

Congolese face the extraordinary situation of a presidential vote allegedly rigged in favor of the opposition. "This is more than an electoral farce; it's a tragedy," the LUCHA activist group tweeted Saturday, noting the ruling party majority in both national assembly and provincial elections.

Fayulu, a businessman who has been vocal about cleaning up widespread corruption, is filing the court challenge on Saturday.

His opposition coalition on Friday said he won 61 percent of the vote, citing figures compiled by the Catholic Church's 40,000 election observers across the vast Central African country. The figures show Tshieskedi received 18 percent, the coalition said.

The church, the rare authority that many Congolese find trustworthy, has said its figures showed a different winner from the one officially declared. In remarks to U.N. Security Council on Friday, the church urged the electoral commission to release its detailed vote results for public scrutiny.

The commission has said Tshisekedi won with 38 percent of the vote while Fayulu received 34 percent.

This could be Congo's first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960, but observers have warned that a court challenge could lead to violence. Some Fayulu supporters have worried that the constitutional court could invalidate the results, keeping Kabila in power until a new election.

There are two options, electoral commission president Corneille Nangaa told the Security Council: The official results are accepted or the vote is annulled.

"Even if Tshisekedi's presidency survives these court challenges, he will be compromised beyond repair and reliant on Kabila, whose patronage network controls most of the country's levers of power, including the security forces," professor Pierre Engelbert, a fellow with at the Atlantic Council's Africa Center, wrote on Friday.

The Dec. 30 election came after more than two turbulent years of delays as many Congolese worried that Kabila, in power since 2001, sought a way to stay in office to protect his sprawling assets.

Statements by the international community, including African regional blocs, have not congratulated Tshisekedi, merely taking note of official results and urging against violence.

Congo's 80 million people have been largely peaceful since the vote, though the U.N. peacekeeping mission has reported at least a dozen deaths in protests in Kwilu province, with authorities noting demonstrations in Kisangani and Mbandaka cities.

Internet service has been cut off across the country since election day.

Tshisekedi had not been widely considered the leading candidate. Long in the shadow of his father, the late opposition leader Etienne, he broke away from the opposition's unity candidate, Fayulu, to stand on his own.

After election results were announced, Tshisekedi said Kabila would be an "important partner" in the transition.

Fayulu, who was backed by two popular opposition leaders barred by the government from running, is seen as more of a threat to Kabila's interests.

The difference between Tshisekedi and Fayulu in official results was some 684,000 votes. One million voters were barred from the election at the last minute, with the electoral commission blaming a deadly Ebola virus outbreak. Elsewhere, observers reported numerous problems including malfunctioning voting machines and polling stations that opened hours late.

The presidential inauguration will be on Jan. 22, the electoral commission said Saturday. </s> Congo's electoral commission has delayed the country's long-awaited presidential election until Dec. 30, citing a recent fire that destroyed 80 percent of the voting machines in the capital.

The vote had been scheduled for Sunday. This is the latest of several delays in the election originally scheduled for late 2016, amid opposition concerns that President Joseph Kabila was looking for ways to stay in power.

After last week's fire destroyed some 8,000 voting machines in Kinshasa, officials found replacement machines but had to get 5 million new ballots printed, said Corneille Nangaa, head of the national electoral commission.

He called on the country of some 40 million voters for calm.

Tensions have risen in Congo ahead of the election.

On Wednesday the governor of Kinshasa, Andre Kimbuta, banned all election rallies in the capital, citing security concerns. That prevented main opposition leader Martin Fayulu from holding a rally. Thousands of angry supporters gathered but police dispersed them with tear gas.

Several people have been killed in recent days at chaotic opposition rallies in various parts of the country, leading the U.N. Security Council to issue a statement this week calling on Congo's government to "swiftly investigate." The council also called for a "violence-free environment."

On Dec. 12, the U.N.'s special representative in Congo denounced "the obstacles encountered by some opposition candidates during their efforts to hold public meetings in certain cities around the country." Among several incidents, Fayulu was prevented from landing in Kindu where he was scheduled hold a rally on Dec. 9, according to his campaign manager, Pierre Lumbi.

"I am concerned by the growing tensions ... and the risk of escalating violence that could lead to the commission of grave crimes," the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, said in a statement on Thursday. She warned that anyone who "incites or participates in mass violence" could be prosecuted.

Other observers have expressed concern over whether adequate election materials have been distributed across the vast country that is more than three times the size of Texas.

Even before the delay was announced, some observers criticized the Kabila government for not making adequate preparations for the vote.

"We had seven years to prepare these elections and at the last minute the electoral commission gives the impression they are not ready for the vote," said Rev. Jean Marie Bomengola with the Episcopal Bishops Conference, which plans to deploy 40,000 election observers. </s> Kinshasa (AFP) - Parties supporting outgoing Democratic Republic of Congo president Joseph Kabila won a majority in long-delayed legislative elections, according to an AFP tally of results released Saturday, as the opposition sought a recount of the disputed presidential poll.

Pro-Kabila parties had passed the 250-seat threshold required to secure a majority in the 500-seat national assembly, according to collated results from the Independent National Election Commission (CENI).

More than 15,000 candidates were running in the poll, which determines who will control parliament for the next five years.

Pro-Kabila candidates had secured 288 of the 429 seats so far declared, with 141 going to the opposition.

The huge central African country, which straddles an area the size of western Europe, has been in the grip of a two-year political crisis triggered by Kabila's refusal to step down when his two-term constitutional limit expired at the end of 2016.

A presidential election to choose a successor was delayed three times before finally taking place on December 30, the same day as the legislative poll.

The poll's runner-up Martin Fayulu, an opposition candidate tipped by pollsters as the likely winner of the vote, told supporters on Friday he would demand a recount.

He said he would challenge Corneille Nangaa, head of the election commission "to produce the tally reports from polling stations in front of witnesses" and Congolese and international observers.

Provisional results released on Thursday gave Felix Tshisekedi, a rival opposition candidate, 38.57 percent of the vote, just ahead of Fayulu with 34.8 percent.

Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, the candidate backed by Kabila, came a distant third with 23.8 percent.

The declared result was a surprise to many observers of the mineral-rich but poverty-stricken country, which has suffered two major wars in the past 22 years, as well as bloodshed in elections in 2006 and 2011 that saw Kabila returned to office.

Pre-election opinion polls had flagged Fayulu as clear favourite while Kabila critics predicted an outcome rigged in favour of Shadary.

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The powerful Roman Catholic church bluntly said CENI's provisional result "does not correspond" with data that its 40,000 election monitors had collected at polling stations.

Fayulu's bloc on Friday said he was the true victor, claiming he had garnered 61 percent of the vote.

Candidates have 48 hours after the result to file any appeal, and the Constitutional Court has a week in which to deliberate.

"We don't expect the election to be annulled, but (a decision in favour of) a recount," Fayulu said.

- Unstable giant -

Polling day had unfolded relatively peacefully, but suspicions over the count have deepened.

The turmoil has darkened hopes that the country will have its first peaceful handover of power since it gained independence in 1960.

International reactions to the results have been guarded.

Most leaders issued statements calling for any disputes to be resolved peacefully, but notably lacking any congratulations for Tshisekedi.

Competing appeals in the dispute were pitched to the UN Security Council on Friday.

CENI chief Nangaa, speaking by video conference, pleaded for "the new authorities to be supported by the international community".

Bishop Marcel Utembi, head of the Catholic church's conference of bishops, urged the Security Council to ask CENI to release the records of vote-counting at polling stations to allow for verification.

- Tshisekedi-Kabila deal? -

Analysts said they believed Kabila, 47, had sought to avoid the expected backlash and international condemnation that would have followed had Shadary -- the candidate he publicly supported -- been declared winner.

According to this scenario, he therefore struck a deal with Tshisekedi, head of the country's oldest and biggest opposition party.

Some commentators suggested Kabila would have sought immunity from prosecution for his iron-fisted 18-year rule, and protection from assets seizure in return for offering his support.

Thursday's pre-dawn announcement brought thousands of Tshisekedi supporters onto the streets in celebration, while others who had backed Fayulu came out to protest.

The authorities late Friday imposed an 8pm-5am curfew in Kikwit, a Fayulu stronghold in the west of the country, city mayor Leonard Mutangu told AFP.

Five civilians were killed there on Thursday in a police operation to curb post-election violence, said National Police spokesman Colonel Pierrot-Rombaut Mwanamputu.

Seventeen police were injured, he said, denying earlier reports of police fatalities. A relay station of the national radio and television broadcaster, RTNC, was also ransacked, he added.

In the eastern city of Goma, at least one person was killed, officials said. </s> KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - Congo's top electoral official says the announcement of the results of the presidential election has been postponed.

Corneille Nangaa told The Associated Press that the results of the Dec. 30 election will not be made public Sunday as expected. He said the official electoral commission will confirm the delay later Sunday.

The postponement in announcing the results is expected to increase tensions in Congo.

The Catholic Church, an influential voice in the heavily Catholic nation, said that data reported by its 40,000 election observers deployed in polling stations show a clear winner. The church urged the electoral commission to announce accurate results.

The government has already cut internet access across the vast Central African country to prevent any speculation on social media about who might have won the election.

This photo taken Friday Jan. 4, 2019 shows a blackboard with presidential election results for that specific polling station, in a school in Kinshasa, Congo. Congo faces what could be its first democratic, peaceful transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960, but election observers and the opposition have raised numerous concerns about voting irregularities as the country chooses a successor to longtime President Joseph Kabila. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Voters in the Republic of the Congo participate in the first round of an election of National Assembly members.