President Felix Tshisekedi declared winner of DRC election

Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi won reelection with more than 70% of the vote, the nation’s election commission stated Sunday.

The initial outcomes of the Dec. 20 election were revealed in the capital, Kinshasa, in the middle of needs from the opposition and some civil society groups for the vote to be rerun due to huge logistical issues that put the credibility of the result into concern.

Tshisekedi was followed by entrepreneur Moise Katumbi, who got 18% of the voteand Martin Fayulu, who got 5%Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege, a doctor renowned for dealing with females brutalized by sexual violence in eastern Congo, got less than 1%.

The election had more than a 40% turnout with some 18 million individuals voting. The outcomes will be sent out to the constitutional court for verification, election chief Denis Kadima stated.

Opposition prospects opposing the outcomes have 2 days to send their claims, and the constitutional court then has 7 days to choose. The outcomes are anticipated on January 10, and the president is set up to be sworn in at the end of that month.

Congo has a history of challenged elections that can turn violent, and there’s little self-confidence amongst lots of Congolese in the nation’s organizations. Before the outcomes were revealed Sunday, opposition prospects, consisting of Katumbi, stated they turned down the outcomes and contacted the population to activate.

The logistical issues consisted of numerous ballot stations being late in opening or not opening at all. Some did not have products, and numerous citizen cards had actually smeared ink that made them illegible.

Ballot in the election needed to be extended into a 2nd day– something regional observers and civil society companies have actually called prohibited– and parts of the nation were still casting tallies 5 days after election day.

“If a foreign nation thinks about these elections to be elections, there’s an issue,” Fayulu stated at a press conference in the capital Sunday before the outcomes were revealed. “It’s a farce, do not accept (the outcomes).”

Previously today, clashes appeared in between a few of Fayulu’s fans and policemans who fired tear gas at protesters who tossed rocks and barricaded themselves inside the opposition head office.