PARTS of the Democratic Republic of Congo erupted in jubilation on Thursday following the emergence of Felix Tshisekedi, the candidate of the opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress, as the winner of the country’s presidential election.
The development represents the first electoral transfer of power since the DRC gained independence 59 years ago.
Many had thought that the government candidate, Emmanuel Shadary, who was hand-picked by outgoing president Joseph Kabila to succeed him, would win the election, the third since the end of a civil war in the country in 2002.
However, another popular opposition candidate, Martin Fayulu, has said that the election was rigged, insisting that Tshisekedi has agreed to a power deal with Kabila in order to shield the outgoing president from corruption prosecution.
Fayulu was widely believed to be the main contender to the presidency. Independent polls prior to the election had put him on 47 per cent, at least 20 points ahead of Tshisekedi.
Also, there are reports that vote tallies compiled by the DRC’s Catholic church show that Fayulu clearly won the election. The Catholic church is a powerful institution in the DRC, and in a joint statement with other Protestant churches and election observers, the country’s Catholic bishops’ conference called for calm and demanded that the election board, publish “only results that come from the ballot box”.
In his victory speech, Tshisekedi described the moment as a historic one while eulogising Kabila as “an important partner … in the democratic transition in our country”.
Tshisekedis supporters celebrate his victory. Photo culled from The Guardian.
But Fayulu refused to accept the result, insisting that it was a result of an “electoral hold up” that as “rigged, fabricated and invented” and do “not reflect the truth of the ballots”.
“How long are we going to negotiate results? In 2006, Jean-Pierre Bemba’s victory was stolen, in 2011 Étienne Tshisekedi’s victory was stolen. In 2018 victory won’t be stolen from Martin Fayulu,” he said.
Étienne Tshisekedi − who died in 2018 − was the father of Felix Tshisekedi, the winner of the current election, but many say the junior Tshisekedi does not enjoy the same popularity and goodwill as his father did.
Fayulu urged the Catholic Church to release the results from its team of 40,000 observers who recorded voting tallies posted at each of the polling centres.
The international media is reporting that the figures compiled by the Catholic Church showed that Fayulu won an absolute majority of the votes. Two diplomats also said that all major observation missions, including from the African Union and the Southern African Development Community, showed similar results with Fayulu the winner. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
Meanwhile, riot policemen have been deployed across designated flashpoints in the countries in case a riot breaks out.
In a statementon Thursday, the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, said he “takes note” of the announcement and urged all parties to “refrain from violence and … to channel any electoral disputes through the established institutional mechanisms.”
As it stands, Tshisekedi will be the first DRC leader to take power via an election since Patrice Lumumba shortly after the country won independence from Belgium in 1960. Lumumba was toppled in a coup and killed four months later.
The incumbent President of the DRC, Joseph Kabila.
Kabila has ruled the country since 2001 after his father, Laurent Kabila, was assassinated. The older Kabila had himself overthrew the long-serving dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997 to take power.
Despite being rich in minerals, including cobalt which is used to produce car and smartphone batteries, DRC suffers from widespread corruption, continuing conflict, endemic disease, and some of the world’s highest levels of sexual violence and malnutrition.