DRC rejects the request to repeat the general election, Tshisekedi will be expected to win
The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has rejected the opposition's request to repeat the election which was plagued by controversy while the incumbent President Félix Tshisekedi is expected to win a big victory.
Of the 12.5 million votes counted so far by the electoral commission (Céni), the 60-year-old Tshisekedi, who is seeking a second five-year term, received 9.5 million, i.e. 76 percent of all votes. He is followed by businessman and former governor of Katanga (south-east) Moïse Katumbi who got 16.5% and another opponent, Martin Fayulu managed to get 4.4%. Twenty other candidates, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege, failed to reach 1% in the election held on December 20-21. The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has dismissed the opposition's call for a rerun of the controversial election, after a delegation of observers from the Catholic Church claimed that there were "defects and fraud" in the election. A police officer confronts opposition supporters running to the house of opposition leader Martin Fayulu during a protest against the election results in Kinshasa on December 27, 2023. The Electoral Commission is expected to announce the official election results on December 31. The Constitutional Court is also expected to approve the election results in early January. The opposition insists that the results must be annulled while the government maintains its position that the election was free and fair. The conflict could lead to chaos and violence in the DRC, a country that is already facing a security crisis in the eastern regions rich in minerals. Congo is the world's largest producer of cobalt ore and other industrial minerals, including copper, but its citizens live in extreme poverty.
