Voting began on Wednesday marred by widespread delays. The head of the DRC’s electoral commission extended the voting to Thursday to allow all those who missed the exercise to cast their ballots.

But some opposition candidates say the electoral commission has no constitutional right to extend the vote and have called for a rerun.
Their call has raised fears of an outbreak of protests.

Some local observers from religious institutions have decried the poor organisation of the elections.

They say they recorded more than 1 000 incidents of irregularities across the country.

Many of them were about the delay in starting the voting process, faulty electronic voting machines, and missing names on the voter’s register.

Officials at the electoral commission have begun counting the votes and are expected to announce the provisional results on December 31