Felix Tshisekedi wins a landslide victory to safe a second time period in election the opposition has labelled a ‘farce’.
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) President Felix Tshisekedi gained re-election with greater than 70 p.c of the vote, the nation’s election fee has introduced.
The preliminary outcomes of the December 20 election have been introduced within the capital, Kinshasa, on Sunday amid calls for from the opposition and a few civil society teams for the vote to be rerun resulting from huge logistical issues that put the validity of the result into query.
Businessman Moise Katumbi completed behind Tshisekedi with 18 p.c of the vote.
Martin Fayulu, a former oil firm govt, acquired 5 p.c, whereas Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege, a doctor famend for treating ladies brutalised by sexual violence in jap DRC, received lower than 1 p.c.
The election had over 40 p.c turnout, with some 18 million folks voting. The outcomes can be despatched to the constitutional court docket for affirmation, election chief Denis Kadima stated.
Opposition candidates opposing the outcomes have two days to submit their claims, and the constitutional court docket has seven days to resolve.
The ultimate outcomes are anticipated on January 10, and the president is scheduled to be sworn in on the finish of that month.
Opposition labelled election a ‘farce’
The DRC has a historical past of disputed elections that may flip violent, and plenty of of its residents harbour little belief within the nation’s establishments.
Earlier than the outcomes have been introduced Sunday, opposition candidates, together with Katumbi, stated they rejected the outcomes and referred to as on the inhabitants to mobilise.
The logistical issues included many polling stations both opening late or not opening in any respect. Supplies have been typically missing, and plenty of voter playing cards have been rendered illegible resulting from smudged ink.
Voting within the election needed to be prolonged right into a second day, one thing native observers and civil society organisations have deemed unlawful, and components of the nation have been nonetheless casting ballots 5 days after election day.
“If a foreign country considers these elections to be elections, there’s a problem,” Fayulu stated at a information convention within the capital on Sunday earlier than the outcomes have been introduced.
“It’s a farce, don’t accept [the results].”
Earlier this week, confrontations broke out between supporters of Fayulu and law enforcement officials.
Tear gasoline was deployed as protesters, who have been throwing rocks and barricading themselves contained in the opposition headquarters, clashed with regulation enforcement.