Democratic Republic of Congo's electoral commission on Thursday declared opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi the surprise winner of last month's chaotic presidential election, but the runner-up dismissed the outcome as an "electoral coup".

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In a pre-dawn announcement, the election commission named Tshisekedi, son of the country's late veteran opposition leader, as provisional winner of the bitterly-contested December 30 vote.

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.

Tshisekedi's apparent victory was greeted by celebrations at the headquarters of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), the country's oldest and largest opposition party which was founded by his late father, Etienne.

'A historic vote and a historic win'

The 55-year-old immediately pledged to work closely with current incumbent Joseph Kabila.

"Today we should no longer see him as an adversary, but rather as a partner for democratic change in our country," he told supporters.

'Electoral coup'

But the result was immediately denounced by his opposition rival Martin Fayulu, the runner up, who slammed the announcement as "an electoral coup".

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the declared outcome was "not consistent" with the results, saying that Fayulu appeared to have won.

>> Read more: DR Congo's Catholic Church says its election tally shows different winner

With the vast central African country increasingly on edge over the long-delayed vote to replace Kabila, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 2001, the United Nations warned against any resort to violence.

"The Secretary-General calls on all stakeholders to refrain from violence and to channel any eventual electoral disputes through the established institutional mechanisms," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said late Wednesday.

Kabila had been due to step down two years ago, but managed to cling on to power, sparking an escalating political crisis marked by widespread protests that were brutally repressed, leaving dozens of people dead.

The vote finally took place at the end of December, pitting Kabila's handpicked successor Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary against Tshisekedi and Fayulu, a fiery orator who emerged from relative obscurity to take a front seat in the race.

>> Read more: DR Congo’s Felix Tshisekedi: From opposition scion to provisional president-elect

'Ugly scam'

Election chief Corneille Nangaa declared Tshisekedi the winner with 38.57 percent of the vote, just ahead of Fayulu with 34.8 percent.

Shadaray came third with 23.8 percent.

Profile: Felix Tshisekedi

The announcement of an opposition win was a shock as many had expected the results to be stacked in Shadary's favour, prompting heavy international pressure on Kinshasa to respect the wishes of the electorate as the mammoth ballot count was under way.

But Thursday's outcome was swiftly denounced by Fayulu as a sham.

"These results have nothing to do with the truth at the ballot box," he told Radio France International.

"It's a real electoral coup, it's unbelievable," he said. "It's an ugly scam by Nangaa and his political cronies.

"They have stolen the Congolese people's victory and the people will never accept that."

France's Le Drian also said Fayulu had apparently won, pointing to a parallel count by DR Congo's powerful Catholic Church which .

He indicated that the results were at odds with those of the Church, which deployed more than 40,000 people to observe the vote.

Last week, CENCO, the body that represents the country's Catholic bishops, said it knew the outcome of the vote and urged the electoral commission to publish the results "in keeping with truth and justice".

Although it did not name the winner, its announcement drew a sharp rebuke from the ruling coalition.

Calculated risk

Analysts described Tshisekedi's win as "highly surprising" but said it made sense in the context of DRC's political dynamics.

"Kabila did not want to risk announcing Shadary as the winner, which would have triggered violent protests and international condemnation. Instead, he chose to split the opposition by creating a power-sharing deal with Tshisekedi," said Robert Besseling, executive director of risk consultancy EXX Africa.

"Kabila will be able to influence Tshisekedi, who now owes his ascendancy to power to Kabila's control of the electoral commission."

He said the result was "starkly at odds" with CENCO's parallel vote tabulation.

And in a country of 80 million where half the population are Catholic, CENCO's assessment that the outcome was rigged was likely to be widely accepted, he added.

The legacy of DR Congo's Joseph Kabila

Ahead of the results announcement, police deployed throughout Kinshasa, where residents went home early for the second day running fearful of unrest.

CENI is expected to release definitive results on January 15 with the new president to be sworn in three days later.

The last two elections in 2006 and 2011, both of which were won by Kabila, were marred by bloodshed, and many fear a repeat of the violence if there is any sense the result has been fixed.

In 2006, Kabila defeated former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba in a violence-tainted poll, and five years later, he was re-elected in another vote blighted by bloodshed, chaotic organisation and alleged irregularities.

This time round, Bemba -- who was barred from running -- threw his weight behind Fayulu as did another opposition heavyweight, former Katanga governor Moise Katumbi.

France 24 screen grabs

(AFP)</s>Felix Tshisekedi was declared winner of the long-delayed presidential election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — amid suggestions of vote-rigging.

In Democratic Republic of Congo, the provisional result of a long-awaited presidential election had hardly been announced and the outcome was contested. The election commission declared one opposition frontrunner, Felix Tshisekedi, the winner of a vote on December 30. Another opposition contender says those results were rigged. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports from Kinshasa that this vote was supposed to herald Congo's first democratic and peaceful transfer of power.

OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON, BYLINE: After a long night of waiting, Congo's embattled election chief Corneille Nangaa eventually declared the provisional winner of the highly anticipated presidential vote.

QUIST-ARCTON: Felix Tshisekedi is the son of Congo's historic, late opposition leader, Etienne Tshisekedi, who died in 2017 after being an implacable critic of first former president Mobutu Sese Seko, then Laurent-Desire Kabila and his son, outgoing President Joseph Kabila. But Tshisekedi Junior appears to have succeeded where his father failed by winning that elusive presidency.

QUIST-ARCTON: Addressing his supporters in Kinshasa, Tshisekedi said the voters had spoken and promised to govern for all Congolese. Fifty-five-year-old Felix Tshisekedi spent much of his life in Belgium, the former colonial power in Congo, and is considered a political novice by his detractors, despite holding high office in his father's opposition party and being propelled into the leadership after Etienne Tshisekedi's death. The son now looks set to take over from outgoing President Kabila with whom observers say Felix Tshisekedi has negotiated a backdoor deal.

QUIST-ARCTON: That's the view of fellow opposition presidential frontrunner Martin Fayulu, who came in second after Tshisekedi. Fayulu says the outcome was fixed and Tshisekedi has been co-opted to cook up an acceptable replacement that suits Kabila, whose preferred candidate trailed in third place.

QUIST-ARCTON: A furious Fayulu has denounced what he describes as a scandalous, electoral coup - rigged, fabricated and invented, he says, which fails to reflect the truth of the ballots. Fayulu says voters have been robbed of victory and democracy. He looks poised to formally challenge the results.

Meanwhile, Fayulu is calling on election monitors, including Congo's influential Catholic bishops conference, which fielded thousands of observers, to publish what he says are the real results. The bishops announced last week that their observations indicated a clear winner and warned the election commission to ensure its results reflected the will of the Congolese people.

QUIST-ARCTON: While many Congolese are celebrating the presumed victory of Felix Tshisekedi, many others question whether he can be his own man and steer vast, mineral-rich Congo away from its reputation for corruption, kleptocracy and rampant cronyism. Others, though, are holding their breath and praying that whatever happens, peace will prevail. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Kinshasa.</s>DR Congo presidential election: Outcry as Tshisekedi is named winner (BBC) Opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi has won...</s>The Democratic Republic of Congo’s electoral commission declared opposition leader Félix Tshisekedi as the winner of the Dec. 30 presidential election, a stunning announcement that contradicts an unofficial tally by the largest observer mission and throws the Central African nation into uncharted territory.

It is the first time since independence from Belgium that an opposition candidate would take the presidency of the resource-rich country after an election. The 55-year-old Mr. Tshisekedi is set to take over from President...</s>Félix Tshisekedi, is the new president of the DRC, according to provisional results published by CENI.

Political heir to Étienne Tshisekedi, a historical opponent who died on 1 February 2017 in Brussels… Felix inherited the Union for Democracy and Social Progress UDPS, a party founded by his father in the 1980s to counter Marshal Mobutu’s dictatorship.

Born in June 1963, Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi is the third in a family of five children. At the age of 19, he followed his father relegated by Mobutu to his village in Kasai. A significant episode for the young man.

At 22, he went into exile in Belgium.

Despite being In his father’s shadow, Felix rose through the ranks of the UDPS. In 2011, he was elected deputy in Mbuji-Mayi and refused to sit in the National Assembly to respect his father’s slogan against the disputed re-election of Joseph Kabila.

At the end of 2016, he once again rejected a position as Prime Minister of the Kabila government, which remained in power beyond the end of its last mandate.

Unsurprisingly elected president and candidate of the UDPS, Tshisekedi won the presidential election with 38.57% of the votes.

If he follows his pre-election statements, his priority will be to bring back his late father’s body and organize a national funeral.</s>Democratic Republic of Congo’s electoral commission on Thursday declared opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi the surprise winner of last month’s presidential election, a result that sets the stage for the country’s first democratic transfer of power.The outcome of the disorganised and contentious Dec. 30 poll is likely to be contested by another opposition leader, Martin Fayulu. Vote tallies by Congo’s Catholic church showed Fayulu as victor, according to two diplomats briefed on the findings. Tshisekedi had won with 38.57 percent of more than 18 million ballots cast, Corneille Nangaa, the president of the election commission (CENI), told a news conference at about 3 a.m. (0200 GMT), that appeared timed to avoid any immediate reaction in the streets. “Felix Tshisekedi Tshilombo is declared the provisionally- elected president of Democratic Republic of Congo,” Nangaa said, to a mixture of cheers and gasps inside CENI headquarters.

SEE ALSO :Congo hit by history's worst Ebola outbreak

In the Kinshasa neighborhood of Limete where Tshisekedi lives, thousands of people danced in the streets in celebration and cars slowed down and honked their horns. Some chanted that Congo had “turned the page” on the Kabila era, which began in 1997 when Joseph Kabila’s father, Laurent, led a rebellion that overthrew longtime leader Mobutu Sese Seko. Joseph took over in 2001 when Laurent was assassinated. If Tshisekedi’s victory is confirmed in the next 10 days by the constitutional court, he will become the first leader to take power at the ballot box since Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, who was toppled in a coup less than three months after independence in 1960 and killed four months later. Opposition fears that authorities would rig the vote in favor of Kabila’s hand-picked candidate, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, did not materialize as Shadary finished a distant third to Tshisekedi and Fayulu, with about 4.4 million votes. However, the result, which observers said was marred by a spate of irregularities, is certain to fuel further suspicion among Fayulu’s supporters that Tshisekedi, shown by the last opinion polls before the election to be running well behind Fayulu, struck a power-sharing pact with Kabila.

SEE ALSO :Pneumonia to kill 11 million plus children by 2030: new study

Fayulu was backed by two prominent foes of Kabila, both of whom were barred from standing in the election. Kabila referred to one of them, ex-provincial governor Moise Katumbi, as “Judas” in a recent interview with local media. Tshisekedi’s camp has acknowledged contacts since the vote with Kabila’s representatives but said they were aimed at ensuring a peaceful transition and denied there had been any kind of deal.Tshisekedi is the son of the legendary Etienne Tshisekedi, who led opposition to three successive presidents over 35 years. Felix’s profile rose after his father died in 2017, soon after negotiating the terms of a transition period when Kabila refused to step down at the official end of his mandate the previous year. Losing candidates can contest Tshisekedi’s victory before Congo’s constitutional court, which has 10 days to hear and rule on any challenges.

SEE ALSO :Seven UN peacekeepers killed in clashes

Any widespread perception the election has been stolen could set off a destabilizing cycle of unrest, particularly in the volatile eastern borderlands where Fayulu enjoyed some of his strongest support. The Catholic Church’s bishops conference said last week that it knew the identity of the winner and demanded that CENI publish accurate results. The Church did not say who it thought the winner was but briefed diplomats on its conclusions. Authorities cancel led voting on election day for more than one million people, saying the vote could not go ahead because of an Ebola outbreak and militia violence. Observers said many polling stations opened late and closed early and in some places voting machines malfunctioned.</s>Mathilde Boussion, Saleh Mwanamilongo and David Keyton, The Associated Press 

 



KINSHASA, Congo -- Congo opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi has been declared the winner of the long-delayed, disorganized and controversial presidential election, in an announcement by the electoral commission early Thursday that surprised many, as the vast country braced for possible protests over alleged rigging.

Tshisekedi, who received more than 7 million votes, or 38 per cent according to the electoral commission's results, had not been widely considered the leading candidate and is relatively untested. The son of late opposition leader Etienne, who pursued Congo's presidency for many years, he startled Congolese shortly before the election by breaking away from an opposition effort to unite behind a single candidate.

Tshisekedi's victory was quickly contested by opposition leader Martin Fayulu, who charged the results were rigged.

Fayulu denounced the results as an "electoral hold up" that were "rigged, fabricated and invented" and do "not reflect the truth of the ballots." Speaking to the press shortly after the results were announced, Fayulu called on the Congolese people to "rise as one man to protect victory."

Fayulu, who vowed in his campaign to to clean up Congo's widespread corruption, received more than 6 million votes, or 34 per cent, of the electoral commission's results. He claims that he won a majority of the votes and that he was deprived of victory because a deal was made with Tshisekedi.

"How long are we going to negotiate results?" said Fayulu. "In 2006, Jean-Pierre Bemba's victory was stolen, in 2011 Etienne Tshisekedi's victory was stolen. In 2018 victory won't be stolen from Martin Fayulu."

Fayulu urged the Catholic Church to release the results from its team of 40,000 observers who recorded voting tallies posted at each of the polling centres. Last week, the Catholic Church said their observations showed a clear winner, and many say that was Fayulu.

Several diplomats briefed on the matter told The Associated Press that the figures compiled by the Catholic Church showed that Fayulu won an absolute majority of the votes. Two diplomats also said that all major observation missions, including from the African Union and the Southern African Development Community, showed similar results with Fayulu the winner. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Some observers suggested that President Joseph Kabila's government made a deal with Tshisekedi to declare him the winner, as hopes faded for ruling party candidate Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, who received just 23 per cent of the official results.

The constitutional court has 14 days to validate them.

The election may enable Congo to achieve its first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence in 1960. Kabila has ruled since 2001 in the troubled nation rich in the minerals key to smartphones around the world and has amassed vast wealth. He is barred from serving three consecutive terms, but during more than two years of election delays many Congolese feared he'd find a way to stay in office.

"This is the coronation of a lifetime," the deputy secretary-general of Tshisekedi's party, Rubens Mikindo, said shortly after the announcement that his candidate had won, above the cheers at party headquarters. "This is the beginning of national reconciliation."

Scores of people in the capital, Kinshasa, danced after the election results were announced long after midnight, but observers waited to see how other Congolese would respond.

Fayulu, who once tweeted that "When the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn," was backed by two popular opposition figures barred from running, former Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba and former governor Moise Katumbi. Fayulu, a former Exxon manager and Kinshasa lawmaker, accused the government of impeding his campaign by blocking flights and assaulting his supporters, which Kabila dismissed.

Attention now turns to Congo's powerful Catholic church and whether it will dispute the official results.

If the church found Fayulu won, "how will population react?" Stephanie Wolters, analyst with the Institute for Security Studies, posted on Twitter ahead of the announcement. She added, will the African Union "consider a power transfer 'enough' or will they push for investigation and real result?"

The delayed results came after international pressure to announce an outcome that reflected the will of the people. The United States threatened sanctions against officials who rigged the vote.

The largely peaceful election was marred by the malfunctioning of many voting machines that Congo used for the first time. Dozens of polling centres opened hours late as materials went missing. And in a last-minute decision, some 1 million of the country's 40 million voters were barred from participating, with the electoral commission blaming a deadly Ebola virus outbreak.

Defiantly, tens of thousands of voters in one of the barred communities held their own ballot on election day. Fayulu won easily.

Congo's government cut internet service the day after the vote to prevent speculation on social media. As the electoral commission met this week, anti-riot police moved into place outside.

Some Congolese weary of Kabila's 18-year rule, two turbulent years of election delays and years of conflict that killed millions of people said they simply wanted peace. Some said they would be happy as long as Fayulu or Tshisekedi won, while recalling the violence that followed past disputed elections.

Many Congolese objected to Shadary, suspecting that Kabila would continue to rule from behind the scenes.

Now Congo faces a new leader who is little known after spending many years in Belgium and living in the shadow of his outspoken father.

The 56-year-old Tshisekedi took over as head of Congo's most prominent opposition party in early 2018, a year after his father's death.

Some Congolese have said Tshisekedi lost support by splitting the opposition. He was less visible in campaigning than Fayulu and did not make himself available to reporters after the vote. As he cast his ballot, he accused Congo's government of deliberately creating a mess to spark a court challenge that could allow Kabila to extend his time in power.

"I deplore all the disorder," Tshisekedi said.</s>Surprise Winner Of Congolese Election Is An Opposition Leader

The Congolese capital of Kinshasa is reported relatively quiet early Thursday morning as the nation's electoral commission waited until the wee hours to declare opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi the provisional winner of last month's long-delayed presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

With 7 million votes, or 38 percent, Tshisekedi outpaced another opposition frontrunner, Martin Fayulu, who came in second with more than 6 million votes. The governing coalition's candidate Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary came in third with more than 4 million votes.

"Some observers have suggested that President Joseph Kabila's government sought to make a deal as hopes faded for a win" for Shadary, the Associated Press reported.

As NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports from Kinshasa that the results could lead to protests and allegations of rigging.

The second-place winner, Fayulu, has not yet indicated whether he will contest the results. Earlier, he said that the results were "not negotiable" and that election officials should not "disguise the truth." He also made it clear that he was not looking for any deal with Kabila's governing coalition.

The vote, delayed since 2016 and marred by allegations of widespread irregularities, occurred on Dec. 30. The results were originally scheduled to be released on Sunday, Jan 6.

As the central African nation of 80 million people awaited the election results, riot police with water canon were deployed around the electoral commission and Kinshasa's main boulevard in anticipation of possible unrest.

Felix Tshisekedi is the son of Congo's historic opposition leader, Etienne Tshisekedi, who died in 2017.

Term-limited President Joseph Kabila is due to step down after 18 years in power. His term was to have ended in 2016, but he successfully delayed the election until December 2018. Critics charged he used that two-year period to prolong his presidency, violently suppress the opposition and hand-pick his preferred successor.

In face of rising tensions associated with the elections, the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa had issued an alert warning Americans to leave the mineral- and metal-rich country, prone to rebellions and conflict, mainly in the often-troubled east, where the authorities suspended the presidential vote in two opposition strongholds at the epicenter of an Ebola epidemic, citing health concerns about the virus spreading.</s>Congo opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi has been declared the winner of the long-delayed presidential election, the electoral commission announced early Thursday to the surprise of many, as the vast country braced for possible protests over alleged rigging.

Tshisekedi, who received more than 7 million votes, or 38 per cent, had not been widely considered the leading candidate and is relatively untested. The son of late opposition leader Etienne, who pursued the presidency for many years, he startled Congolese shortly before the election by breaking away from an opposition effort to unite behind a single candidate.

Some observers have suggested that President Joseph Kabila's government sought to make a deal as hopes faded for a win for ruling party candidate Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, who received more than 4 million votes, or 23 per cent.

It was not immediately clear whether opposition candidate Martin Fayulu, who had pushed hard for Kabila to leave power and vowed to clean up Congo's widespread corruption, will contest the results after leading in polling. The constitutional court has 14 days to validate them. Fayulu received more than 6 million votes, or 34 per cent.

The election may enable Congo to achieve its first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence in 1960. Kabila has ruled since 2001 in the troubled nation rich in the minerals key to smartphones around the world and has amassed vast wealth. He is barred from serving three consecutive terms, but during more than two years of election delays many Congolese feared he'd find a way to stay in office.

"This is the coronation of a lifetime," the deputy secretary-general of Tshisekedi's party, Rubens Mikindo, said shortly after the announcement that his candidate had won, above the cheers at party headquarters. "This is the beginning of national reconciliation."

Scores of people in the capital, Kinshasa, danced after the election results were announced long after midnight, but observers waited to see how other Congolese would respond, especially after Fayulu this week warned that the results were "not negotiable."

Fayulu, who once tweeted that "When the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn," was backed by two popular opposition figures barred from running, former Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba and former governor Moise Katumbi. Fayulu, a former Exxon manager and Kinshasa lawmaker, accused the government of impeding his campaign by blocking flights and assaulting his supporters, which Kabila dismissed.

Ahead of the election results, activist groups urged people to "be ready to massively take to the streets" if the outcome didn't match "the truth of the ballot boxes."

Attention now turns to Congo's powerful Catholic church, which has said its 40,000 election observers at all polling stations found a "clear winner" but was barred by electoral regulations from saying more.

If the church found Fayulu won, "how will population react?" Stephanie Wolters, analyst with the Institute for Security Studies, posted on Twitter ahead of the announcement. She added, will the African Union "consider a power transfer 'enough' or will they push for investigation and real result?"

The delayed results come after international pressure to announce an outcome that reflected the will of the people. The United States threatened sanctions against officials who rigged the vote.

The largely peaceful election was marred by the malfunctioning of many voting machines that Congo used for the first time. Dozens of polling centres opened hours late as materials went missing. And in a last-minute decision, some 1 million of the country's 40 million voters were barred from participating, with the electoral commission blaming a deadly Ebola virus outbreak.

Defiantly, tens of thousands of voters in one of the barred communities held their own ballot on election day. Fayulu won easily.

Congo's government cut internet service the day after the vote to prevent speculation on social media. As the electoral commission met this week, anti-riot police moved into place outside.

Some Congolese weary of Kabila's long rule, two turbulent years of election delays and years of conflict that killed millions of people said they simply wanted peace. Some said they would be happy as long as Fayulu or Tshisekedi won, while recalling the violence that followed past disputed elections.

Many Congolese objected to Shadary, suspecting that Kabila would continue to rule from behind the scenes.

Now Congo faces a new leader who is little known after spending many years in Belgium and living in the shadow of his outspoken father.

On Wednesday afternoon, hours before results were announced, some Tshisekedi supporters began to celebrate at his Union for Democracy and Social Progress party headquarters, with calendars already printed saying "Felix Tshisekedi president."

The 56-year-old Tshisekedi took over as head of Congo's most prominent opposition party in early 2018, a year after his father's death.

Some Congolese have said Tshisekedi lost support by splitting the opposition. He was less visible in campaigning than Fayulu and did not make himself available to reporters after the vote. As he cast his ballot, he accused Congo's government of deliberately creating a mess to spark a court challenge that could allow Kabila to extend his time in power.

"I deplore all the disorder," Tshisekedi said.</s>Democratic Republic of Congo's electoral commission on Thursday declared opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi the winner of a disorganised and contentious Dec. 30 presidential election.

KINSHASA: Democratic Republic of Congo's electoral commission on Thursday declared opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi the winner of a disorganised and contentious Dec. 30 presidential election.

The result could lead to Congo's first democratic transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960, with longtime President Joseph Kabila due to step down in coming days.

But vote tallies compiled by Congo's Catholic Church found that another opposition candidate, Martin Fayulu, clearly won the election, two diplomats said, raising the spectre of a standoff that many fear could lead to violence.

Election commission (CENI) president Corneille Nangaa, speaking around 3 a.m. (0200 GMT) at a news conference that appeared timed to avoid any immediate reaction in the streets, said Tshisekedi had won with 38.57 percent of the more than 18 million ballots cast.

"Felix Tshisekedi Tshilombo is declared the provisionally-elected president of Democratic Republic of Congo," Nangaa said to a mixture of cheers and gasps inside CENI headquarters.

Nangaa said Tshisekedi had received more than 7 million votes, compared to about 6.4 million for Fayulu and about 4.4 million for Kabila's hand-picked candidate, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary.

The result is certain to fuel further suspicion that Tshisekedi, who the last opinion polls before the election showed running well behind Fayulu, struck a power-sharing pact with Kabila.

Tshisekedi's camp has acknowledged contacts since the vote with Kabila's representatives but denies there has been any kind of deal.

Losing candidates, including Fayulu and Shadary, can contest the results before Congo's constitutional court, which has 10 days to hear and rule on any challenges.

The Church's bishops conference said last week that it knew the identity of the winner and demanded that CENI publish accurate results. The Church did not say who it thought the winner was, but briefed diplomats on its conclusions.

More than one million people were kept from voting on election day on Dec. 30 because of an Ebola outbreak and militia violence in opposition strongholds mainly in the east of the country.

Observers said many polling stations opened late and closed early and in some places voting machines malfunctioned.

Kabila, who succeeded his assassinated father in 2001, had wanted to hand over power to Shadary, his former interior minister, when he stands down this month after 18 years in power.
After several delays, the Congolese election commission announces that Félix Tshisekedi is the winner of the December 30 presidential election.