Congo election results delayed

Election officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo say voters will have to wait another week for the preliminary results of the presidential election.

The commission, known as CENI, had received only 47 percent of vote tally sheets as of Saturday, said its president, Corneille Nangaa, and it was not yet clear when the results would be ready.

The delay is the latest setback in a disorganized poll.

The initial outcome of last week's vote to choose a successor to President Joseph Kabila was due to be declared on Sunday.

Kabila has ruled the country of 80 million people since his father was assassinated in 2001.

The December 30 vote could mark Congo’s first democratic transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. But tensions rose after observers reported a litany of irregularities that the opposition says are part of the ruling party’s effort to steal the election.

The opposition, represented by its two main candidates Martin Fayulu and Felix Tshisekedi, and the ruling coalition all say their candidates have won.

“It will not be possible to announce the results tomorrow,” Nangaa said.

A CENI spokesman later said that the commission was holding a meeting on Sunday to decide when they will be announced.

Congo’s Catholic church body, CENCO, said this week that it had identified the victor based on its own tallies collected by 40,000 observers, though it did not name the winner. The declaration was widely seen as a warning to authorities against rigging the vote.