Concerns warranted in DRC

The international community is right to express concern about the fallout from elections in Democratic Republic of Congo, an analyst said. Results from last week's elections indicate incumbent President Joseph Kabila has an insurmountable leader over opposition challenger Etienne Tshisekedi. Clashes erupted Thursday in Kinshasa between protesters and national police. Tshisekedi's backers blamed police for firing on civilians in front of his home, The Wall Street Journal reports. More than 30 million people were registered to vote in a contest featuring 11 presidential candidates and roughly 18,000 candidates for the country's legislative assembly. Monitors with the Carter Center said, despite tempered optimism from the African Union, there were problems with the election from the start. The International Criminal Court advised Kinshasa to make note of the pending trial for former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo as post-election tensions escalate in DRC. Nyambura Githaiga, an analyst at African think tank the Institute for Strategic Studies, said international scrutiny was welcome. "Caution is not a bad thing," she told the Journal. "These things can spiral out of control very quickly and if the opposition is riling things up and ready to go to the streets, the international community has to be the voice of caution."