According to preliminary results, Felix Tshisekedi, the current president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has secured a second term in office with a significant lead. However, opposition leaders have rejected the results as a fraudulent and illegitimate election.
The country’s electoral commission, Ceni, announced on Sunday that Tshisekedi had won 73% of the votes in the single-round presidential election. These results are provisional.
Moise Katumbi, a successful entrepreneur, owner of a football club, and former governor of a province, came in second place with approximately 18%.
The DRC’s constitutional court is anticipated to verify the preliminary outcomes on January 10th.
In January 2019, Tshisekedi, who is 60 years old, assumed leadership following a controversial election that was widely believed to have been lost by him.
Martin Fayulu, who alleges that he was denied victory in the previous presidential election in 2018, also challenged the results of this year’s poll. However, he ultimately received approximately 5% of the total votes.
Twenty of the remaining candidates, including Denis Mukwege, who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts with women who experienced sexual violence during wartime, had a support rate of either below or close to 1%.
Nine opposition candidates, Mukwege, Fayulu, and Katumbi among them, signed a statement on Sunday denouncing the election as fraudulent and demanding a new vote. Fayulu, speaking to journalists in Kinshasa, declared that the announced results were a farce and should not be accepted.
Before the complete provisional results were announced, political analyst Trésor Kibangula from the Ebuteli research institute told AFP that Tshisekedi’s vote count “far surpassed all predictions.”
“He successfully executed his dynamic campaign,” however, there are concerns about the effectiveness of the irregularities that were noted in certain regions,” he stated.
Tshisekedi, often called “Fatshi” for short, guided the DRC during the Covid crisis and the continuing M23 uprising in the resource-rich eastern region.
His initial term in power is often seen as a combination of achievements and shortcomings: the financial state has improved, but there is a significant rise in inflation and widespread unemployment continues to be a prevalent issue.
During his bid for re-election, Tshisekedi boasted about getting rid of fees for primary education and pledged to generate millions of employment opportunities. He frequently alleged that opposition leaders were collaborating with outside forces.
On December 20th, a total of 44 million citizens out of the country’s population of 100 million were eligible to vote for the positions of president, national and regional lawmakers, and municipal councillors.
According to observers, the voting period was officially prolonged by one day due to issues, and in remote locations, it continued for several days thereafter.
A Catholic-Protestant observation team reported “documenting multiple instances of irregularities that could have impacted the fairness of the vote.”
Approximately 15 diplomatic missions have urged for “restraint” in the impoverished yet resource-rich nation, where there have been frequent tensions following the recent election.
Officials state that they have implemented measures to avoid turmoil, particularly in the southeastern mining regions where Katumbi holds significant influence. They emphasize that any disagreements related to the election must be brought to the constitutional court. Nonetheless, opposition figures express distrust in both the court and Ceni, claiming they are under the control of the government.
Source: theguardian.com
