Court challenge to DRC election result
The runner-up in DR Congo’s presidential election, Martin Fayulu, has appealed to the constitutional court to annul the provisional result which awarded victory to his opposition rival Felix Tshisekedi, his lawyer said on Saturday.
The request was filed on Friday ahead of a 48-hour deadline for any appeals against the shock result to replace longterm President Joseph Kabila.
“The request seeks the annulment of the result declaring Felix Tshisekedi president,” Toussaint Ekombe said outside the court.
The move came as the proKabila FCC coalition announced it had won a majority in legislative elections, which took place at the same time as the presidential poll in December 2018.
Supporters of the outgoing president won nearly 350 seats in the 500-seat National Assembly, according to communications minister Lambert Mende.
About 130 seats went to opposition lawmakers, he said.
The developments were the latest twist in a long-running political crisis which erupted two years ago when Kabila refused to step down at the end of his constitutional term in office, sparking massive protests which were brutally repressed.
On December 30, after repeated delays, voters finally went to the polls in an election pitting two opposition candidates, Fayulu and Tshisekedi, against Kabila’s handpicked successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary.
Opinion polls had indicated Fayulu was the clear favourite, although most observers predicted a result rigged in favour of Shadary.
But the shock result declared Tshisekedi the victor with 38.57%, while Fayulu came second with 34.8%.
The court now has eight days to consider the request.
“I got more than 61% of the vote compared with the others, who each got 18%,” Fayulu said.
“Between them, they get more than 40%.”
At stake is political stewardship of the notoriously unstable central African nation, which has never known a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.
Fayulu has denounced the result as an “electoral coup” engineered by Kabila in which Tshisekedi was “totally complicit”.
Explaining the appeal, the 62year-old said election chief Corneille Nangaa had “broken electoral law” and that only a recount would establish the truth of what happened at the ballot box. didn’t