DRC poll outcome not perfect but it offers hope

THE announcement that 55-yearold Felix Tshisekedi will succeed Joseph Kabila as president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is remarkable for many reasons, and promises hope to a country which has been marred by violent turmoil for more than two decades.

But because of the numerous vested interests, we cannot refer to the elections which took place on December 30 last year, and the subsequent counting of ballots, as “free and fair”.

Martin Fayulu, who was widely tipped to win the vote, cried foul and described Tshisekedi’s victory as a “electoral coup”.

Let’s not forget that former warlord Jean Pierre Bemba, who returned to the DRC in August last year after his successful appeal of a war crime guilty verdict, was blocked from participating in the elections, along with five other prospective candidates, because of an International Criminal Court conviction for bribing witnesses.

Whether Fayulu will lodge an objection to the election result, which was announced overnight on Wednesday, still has to be seen. But how Fayulu and his supporters respond will determine whether the DRC continues along the path of turmoil or on the pathway to peace, stability and growth.

The DRC is perhaps the richest country in the world, when one only considers its mineral wealth.

Last year, its gross domestic product was $37.24 billion (R513bn) but shockingly GDP per capita is $457(R6 350), and the average DRC resident earns a fraction of that due to income inequality.

While Congolese are some of the poorest people in the world in terms of the country’s ranking on the human development index which places it in 174th position, the DRC sits on an estimated mineral wealth worth $24 trillion.

Violence in the DRC, specifically in the eastern parts of the country, has meant that many Congolese are scattered across the world as refugees, seeking safe haven in whichever country can accommodate them. For some of them, the peaceful transfer of power will bring hope.

Now it is incumbent on the DRC’s political leaders, whether they grasp this opportunity, albeit not perfect, or continue down the ruinous road which has only impoverished the country’s citizens.