DR Congo’s Tshisekedi wins second term

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) President Felix Tshisekedi has won a second term in office with a landslide victory, according to provisional results announced on Sunday, in a vote opposition leaders have dismissed as a “sham.”

Provisional results from the single-round presidential ballot, declared by the nation’s electoral commission Ceni, showed that Tshisekedi had won 73 percent of the vote. Turnout was 43 percent.

The president, flanked by his wife, Denise, and his mother, appeared on a balcony at his campaign headquarters in the capital, Kinshasa, to address supporters who braved the rain to hear him speak.

“I have been re-elected president of all Congolese,” Tshisekedi, dressed in a white shirt and cap, told cheering supporters. “It’s in this spirit of openness that I will exercise this second mandate.”

Moise Katumbi — a wealthy businessman, soccer club owner and former provincial governor — was the runner-up with about 18 percent.

The DR Congo Constitutional Court is expected to confirm the provisional results on Wednesday next week.

Tshisekedi, 60, first came to power in January 2019 after a disputed election that many observers said he had lost. Martin Fayulu — who says he was robbed of the last presidential election in 2018 — also contested this election, but in the end won about 5 percent of the votes.

The 20 remaining candidates, including Denis Mukwege, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work with female victims of wartime sexual violence, were hovering at about 1 percent or less.

Nine opposition candidates — Mukwege, Fayulu and Katumbi — signed a declaration on Sunday rejecting what they called a “sham” election and called for a rerun.

Fayulu told reporters in Kinshasa the results “are a masquerade. This must not be accepted.”

Tresor Kibangula, a political analyst at the Ebuteli research institute who spoke before the full provisional results were released, said 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,” Kibangula said.

More than 40 million people out of the 100 million inhabitants of the huge nation were registered to vote on Dec. 20 for the president, as well as for national and regional lawmakers, and municipal councilors.

Voting was officially extended by a day to account for problems, and continued for days afterwards in remote areas, observers said.

One Catholic-Protestant observation mission said it “documented numerous cases of irregularities susceptible to have affected the integrity of the vote.”

The US called for peaceful and transparent resolution of any election disputes after Tshisekedi was declared the winner.

“Any election disputes should be resolved peacefully and in accordance with Congolese electoral law,” a US Department of State spokesperson said on Sunday.

About 15 embassies have also called for “restraint” in the poor, but mineral-rich nation where post-election tensions have been common.

Authorities say they have taken steps to prevent unrest, especially in the mining areas of the southeast that are Katumbi’s stronghold.

They also said that any electoral disputes must be presented to the DR Congo Constitutional Court, but opposition leaders said that they have no confidence in the court or Ceni, which they argue is subservient to the government.

Security was tighter in Kinshasa on Sunday, reporters said, as well as in the southeastern city of Lubumbashi.