The Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday began a tense wait for the results of a volatile presidential election which could see the first peaceful transfer of power in decades.
According to the country’s influential Catholic Bishop Council, Sunday’s elections went ahead in “relative calm”, after two years of delays in the notoriously unstable country.
An electoral official and two civilians have said there were reports of clashes at polling stations in the restive eastern South Kivu province that claimed the lives of a police officer.
While the vote could result in the first peaceful transition of leader since the country gained independence from Belgium in 1960, analysts warned the threat of upheaval was great — given organizational hitches and suspicion of President Joseph Kabila, who refused to quit in 2016 after his two-term limit expired.