Felix Tshisekedi, the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was scheduled to be declared the victor of elections on Sunday, which opposition leaders have called a “sham.”
Tshisekedi easily prevailed in the one-round presidential election based on the partial results that have been made public thus far. The National Independent Electoral Commission (Ceni) stated that it will make provisional totals public on Sunday afternoon.
Tshisekedi, sixty, is a candidate for a second five-year term and has held office since January 2019. By Saturday night, he had a 72% lead after 17.8 million votes had been tabulated.
With 18.9 percent, businessman and former governor of the southeast province of Katanga, Moise Katumbi, came in second.
Martin Fayulu — who says he was robbed of the last presidential election in 2018 — was next at 5.5 percent, and former prime minister Adolphe Muzito had 1.36 percent.
The 20 remaining candidates, including Denis Mukwege, who won a Nobel Peace Price for his work with female victims of wartime sexual violence, were all under one percent.
Nine opposition candidates — Mukwege, Fayulu and Katumbi — on Sunday signed a joint declaration rejecting what they termed a “sham” election and called for a re-run.
Fayulu, addressing reporters in the capital Kinshasa the same day, said the election results due to be announced “are not election results”.
“They are a masquerade. This must not be accepted,” he said.
For Tresor Kibangula, a political analyst at the Ebuteli Research Institute, Tshisekedi’s vote tally “is way beyond all expectations”.
“His dynamic campaign worked” but his scores in some regions “raise questions about the impact of the irregularities that were observed”.
‘Numerous irregularities’
Out of the 100 million residents of the vast nation, 44 million were registered to vote on December 20 for the position of president, as well as for representatives at the local, state, and federal levels and city councils.
Voting, which was initially set for December 20 but was formally postponed by one day due to issues, went on for days in some distant locations, according to observers.
According to a Catholic-Protestant observation mission, there have been multiple instances of irregularities that could have compromised the integrity of the voting process.
Tensions following elections have been usual in this poor but mineral-rich country, and about fifteen embassies have asked for “restraint.”
Authorities claim to have taken action to quell unrest, particularly in Katumbi’s stronghold of the southeast mining districts.
Additionally, they emphasize that any election challenges must be brought to the Constitutional Court, which is scheduled to declare the official results on January 10.
Opposition leaders, however, assert that they lack faith in both Ceni and the court because they believe the latter is beholden to the former.