DR Congo: Cardinal says election results neither true nor just

The Catholic Archbishop of Kinshasa, Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo, has condemned election results that have handed DR Congo President Joseph Kabila a new five-year term.

According to AFP reports the Cardinal said on Monday: "The results announced by the CENI (Independent National Electoral Commission) on 9 December comply with neither truth nor justice."

The CENI said that Kabila had won the polls with 49 percent of the vote. Runner-up Etienne Tshisekedi, who took 32 percent, rejected the result and declared himself president.

International election monitors from the Carter Centre, a non-profit group founded by former US president Jimmy Carter, said the counting process was so flawed the result lacked credibility.

Cardinal Monsengwo appealed to Tshisekedi and the other ten defeated presidential candidates to take their grievances to the Supreme Court, a move Tshisekedi has rejected. He called on the court, which is charged with hearing election disputes and declaring the official winner on 17 December, to act impartially.

The Cardinal further said that the court "is called by all Congolese people to say what is really right."

Source: CISA