Initial results from DR Congo's presidential and parliamentary elections are trickling in after voting that took place in two days.
The central African nation's electoral commission, Ceni, announced results for Congolese voters living in South Africa, Belgium, France, Canada and the United States.
The results represent a minuscule proportion of the overall votes cast, but they indicated a provisional lead for incumbent President Felix Tshisekedi, who is running for a second term.
Mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo held four concurrent polls on Wednesday to elect the president, lawmakers for national and provincial assemblies as well as local councillors.
Voting delays
Delays caused hitches to the vote and some polling booths were unable to open forcing Ceni to extend voting in some areas until Thursday.
In a statement, the electoral commission said that no polling station was authorised to open on Friday.
However, voting continued in some places on Friday, according to officials, especially in the more remote areas of the vast country the size of western Europe.
People were casting votes in Kilembwe, in the Fizi territory of South Kivu province, in the east, for example, after voting materials only arrived late on Thursday.
A Miracle
"Everything should be finished by (the afternoon) at the latest," the territory's administrator Sammy Kalonji told AFP news agency.
Didi Manara, from the Ceni, said that "at least 97 percent" of the roughly 75,000 polling stations in the DRC had been able to open.
Given the size of the country, he said, this represented a "miracle". DR Congo is roughly the size of continental western Europe.
There were more than 44 million registered voters and more than 20 presidential candidates.
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