Media Wire Express Correspondent
DR Congo’s government on Tuesday banned an opposition protest planned for Wednesday over last week’s chaotic national election as early results showed President Felix Tshisekedi in the lead.
Five opposition presidential candidates called the joint demonstration in the capital Kinshasa over alleged election irregularities.
But on Tuesday the government banned the event, saying it did not have a legal basis and aimed at undermining the electoral process while the CENI election commission was still compiling results.
“No government in the world can accept this, so we will not let it happen,” Vice Prime Minister Peter Kazadi said.
“Tomorrow’s demonstrations are intended to undermine the electoral process — the government of the republic cannot accept this,” Interior Minister Peter Kazadi told journalists. “I can assure you that there will be no such march.”
The opposition leaders who signed the letter include Martin Fayulu — who claimed he won last elections in 2018 — and Denis Mukwege, the Nobel Peace Prize winner for his work with victims of wartime sexual violence. They denounced the election as a “sham”.
