Tshisekedi re-elected DRC President, as opposition calls election results ‘farce’

DRC – The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) President, Felix Tshisekedi, has won re-election with more than 70 percent of the vote, the country’s election commission has announced.

The preliminary results of the December 20 election were announced in the capital, Kinshasa, on Sunday amid demands from the opposition and some civil society groups for the vote to be rerun due to massive logistical problems that put the validity of the outcome into question.

According to Aljazeera, businessman, Moise Katumbi, finished behind Tshisekedi with 18 percent of the vote.

Martin Fayulu, a former oil company executive, received five percent, while Nobel Peace Prize winner, Denis Mukwege, a physician renowned for treating women brutalised by sexual violence in eastern DR Congo, got less than 1 percent.

The election had over 40 percent turnout, with some 18 million people voting. The results will be sent to the constitutional court for confirmation, election chief Denis Kadima said.

Opposition candidates opposing the results had two days to submit their claims, and the constitutional court had seven days to decide.

The final results were expected on January 10, and the president is scheduled to be sworn in at the end of that month.

Before the results were announced Sunday, opposition candidates, including Katumbi, said they rejected the results and called on the population to mobilise.

“If a foreign country considers these elections to be elections, there’s a problem,” Fayulu said at a news conference in the capital on Sunday before the results were announced.

“It’s a farce, don’t accept [the results].”

Earlier this week, confrontations broke out between supporters of Fayulu and police officers.

Tear gas was deployed as protesters, who were throwing rocks and barricading themselves inside the opposition headquarters, clashed with law enforcement.

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