Elections 2023: The National Independent Electoral Commission confirms the closure of polling across the Congolese territory.

"We have finished with the voting today. Tomorrow (Friday), we will no longer open the polling stations", announced the Vice President of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), Bienvenu Ilanga, on Thursday evening, December 20th.

Starting this Friday, according to the CENI, the compilation of the presidential election results will begin live on the public channel, RTNC.

"I invite the Presidential candidates, observers, witnesses, and accredited journalists to come and attend the compilation of results," said the CENI Vice President, specifying that trends will be published province by province.

Voting continued this Thursday at stations that had not opened the day before across the DRC. In most of the voting centers, it was a matter of counting or posting the results.

Dysfunctions

After a day of voting marked by several incidents on Wednesday, December 20th, but also long waiting hours before the opening of voting centers in, practically all the provinces of the DRC, the voting operations continued until very late in the evening and in some places until Thursday morning.

Observers noted the malfunctioning of voting machines, difficulties for voters to find their names on electoral lists, or the lack of understanding of the electronic voting procedure by the voters. These difficulties caused the voting operations to be extended well beyond the 11 hours provided by law in most centers.

In territories such as Kabambare in Maniema, Manono in Tanganyika, or even in Kinshasa, some centers were only able to open this Thursday morning, as authorized by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

While in others, such as in Kasongo-Lunda in the Kwango, where the electoral kits had not yet been deployed by midday on Thursday, the residents were waiting to exercise their civic duty.

However, wherever the operations took place without major incidents, the counting of the results started on Wednesday evening or this Thursday morning. This includes several centers in Kinshasa or in the territories of Mahagi or Kasenyi in Ituri and in several other territories.

In France, Belgium, or the United States, results have also begun to be displayed since Wednesday evening.