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Election In The DRC: Africa Leaders Supports Tshisekedi

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Africa began siding with Felix Tshisekedi on Sunday, after being declared by the Constitutional Court as President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), despite fierce protests by the loser Martin Fayulu, whose calls for demonstrations are for him. moment remained without echo.

Opponent Félix Tshisekedi, 55, is expected to take the oath on Tuesday as planned, according to his entourage. He advanced with 38.5% the other opponent Martin Fayulu (34.8%) and the candidate of the power Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary (23%), according to the results of the Electoral Commission, validated as such by the Constitutional Court.

Tshisekedi will take over from incumbent President Joseph Kabila, who has been in power for 18 years, and the assassination of his father Laurent-Désiré on January 16, 2001. This is the first peaceful transfer of power from a president to the presidency. other, and a fortiori the first alternation.

Fayulu challenges this official scenario. He claims victory with 61% of the vote, and considers himself victim of an electoral “coup” orchestrated by Mr. Kabila, who keeps the majority in the National Assembly, with the “complicity” of Felix Tshisekedi.

The opponent proclaims himself the “only legitimate president” and called on the international community not to recognize Mr. Tshisekedi.

Failed: African countries congratulated Tshisekedi, including South Africa and Kenya, as well as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) of which the DRC is a part.

It is also a disavowal for the two main figures of the African Union (AU), who had asked in vain on Thursday for the “suspension” of election results tainted in their eyes as “serious doubts”.

AU Chairman-in-Office Rwandan Paul Kagame and AU Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat wanted to go to Kinshasa on Monday. Their displacement has been postponed, said the AU, which refuses to speak of cancellation.

– The calm reigns –

The European Union (EU) has estimated that “doubts remain about the conformity of the result” of the poll of December 30.

Fayulu also called on the Congolese to hold “peaceful demonstrations” soon after the Constitutional Court rejected his appeal challenging Mr. Tshisekedi’s victory.

But Sunday was perfectly ordinary in Kinshasa. The inhabitants went to their usual places of worship and the traffic was fluid on the main arteries, noted a Nigeria News journalist.

Only the headquarters of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), the historic opposition party of President-elect Mr. Tshisekedi, was a bit bustling.

Calm also prevailed in Beni and Butembo (east), where the presidential election was canceled due to the Ebola epidemic and massacres of civilians, as well as in Goma further south, according to a correspondent of the Nigeria News.

No incidents were reported, not even in Kikwit (west), one of Fayulu’s strongholds, where a large police deployment was reported on Saturday night.


In his first reactions, President-elect Tshisekedi sought appeasement.”It’s not the victory of one side against another,” he said in the night in front of his supporters in a hotel.

– ‘A reconciled Congo’ –

“Tomorrow, the Congo we are going to form will not be a Congo of division, hatred and tribalism, it will be a reconciled Congo, a strong Congo, a Congo oriented towards development, its development, in peace and security for all “.

Mr. Tshisekedi is the son of Etienne Tshisekedi, the historical opponent who challenged Kabila’s reelection in 2011.

“It’s the culmination of the founding father’s fight, but it’s also the beginning of another fight in which I want to engage the Congolese people,” he added. “The fight for a well-being. (…) At work”.

Apart from its hard core of sympathizers, no massive expression of jubilation has yet taken place, unlike the past, including the victories in 2006 and 2011 of current President Joseph Kabila.

Mr. Tshisekedi will have to live with a prime minister from the current pro-Kabila majority, who won a large majority (337 seats out of 500) in the National Assembly according to the Electoral Commission.

Apart from its hard core of sympathizers, no massive expression of jubilation has yet taken place, unlike the past, including the victories in 2006 and 2011 of current President Joseph Kabila.

Martin Fayulu, January 18, 2019 in Kinshasa

Mr. Tshisekedi will have to live with a prime minister from the current pro-Kabila majority, who won a large majority (337 seats out of 500) in the National Assembly according to the Electoral Commission.

“The government will resign and the National Assembly will return.The new President of the Republic must appoint an informant to identify the majority,” detailed the current government spokesman Lambert Mende quoted by the site actualité.cd.

The rejection by the Constitutional Court of Mr Fayulu’s appeal challenging the results of the CENI and calling for a recount of votes, is unsurprising, as it is widely considered to be the case with President Kabila.

Estimates from the influential Catholic Church and New York University’s Experts Group on the Congo (GEC), from documents allegedly leaked from the CENI, gave the victory to Fayulu with 60% voices.