An invitation to "go and vote" at the election which will take place in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday. It was made by the president of the Congolese Bishops Conference, the archbishop of Kisangai Laurent Monsengwo Pasinja. 24.4 million voters will vote at Sunday’s elections the first free elections after those of 1960, held on the occasion of the independence from the Belgian colonial rule in a country that covers 2.34 million square kilometres. "Given the importance of this date explains today mgr. Pasinja to the Vatican Radio Station for the global state of the country, and given the challenges raised by this ballot, we decided to ask everyone to go and vote, reminding them however to vote for people who have a high and honest profile: in other words, people they can trust to pursue the common good and who really want to reconstruct the country". As to the validity of the ballot, the Bishops Conference, as stated in a previous document, reserves the right, based on the observers’ reports, to void them. "If we find out that they have been rigged explains the archbishop and if even the national and international observers, based on their reports, find out the ballot was not transparent: in that case, yes, we will report the vote rigging". In the meantime, the tense climate caused riots in Kinshasa yesterday, with dead and injured people.
