In a statement, Fayulu described the results as an “electoral holdup” that did not reflect the ballots, and he called on people to “rise as one man to protect victory.” Fayulu and other losing candidates are entitled to appeal the election results. He did not announce his intentions Thursday, but a challenge of the results in court would dash any last hopes that this could be Congo’s first uncontested democratic transition.<doc-sep>See the recovery efforts in Gaza as ceasefire appears to hold 'Is everything I'm trying to do pointless? ': Syrians helpless in face of 'sham' election Brother of journalist detained in Myanmar says family is hopeful Report: US companies may have benefited from forced labor of Uyghurs Residents stand near stalls along a road amidst debris while strong winds batter Balasore district in Odisha state on May 26, 2021 as Cyclone Yaas barrels towards India's eastern coast in the Bay of Bengal. (Photo by Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP) (Photo by DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP via Getty Images) France's President Emmanuel Macron (L) and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame speak as they walk in the grounds of The Presidential Palace in Kigali on May 27, 2021, after their press conference and prior to their official luncheon. - French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Rwanda on May 27, 2021, for a highly symbolic visit aimed at moving on from three decades of diplomatic tensions over France's role in the 1994 genocide in the country. Macron is the first French leader since 2010 to visit the East African nation, which has long accused France of complicity in the killing of some 800,000 mostly Tutsi Rwandans. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP) (Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images) Relative of detained Iranian-Americans fears they will not survive Presidential candidate Felix Tshisekedi (C) arrives for a meeting between CENI, SADC and other presidential candidates in Kinshasa on December 29, 2018, one day ahead of the general elections. (Photo by Luis TATO / AFP) (Photo credit should read LUIS TATO/AFP/Getty Images) (CNN) — The Congo’s Catholic Church has rejected the results of the Central African nation’s presidential election, saying they don’t match the data collected by its observers. There was widespread surprise Thursday after the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s electoral commission announced that opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi had won the presidency. Another opposition leader, Martin Faluyu, who was widely expected to be victorious, categorically rejected the outcome and called for the winner to be “the person who really was our people’s choice.” TUTONDELE MIANKENDA/AFP/AFP/Getty Images President Joseph Kabila has ruled the Congo with an iron fist since 2001. “We take note of the publication of the provisional results of the presidential election which, for the first time in the recent history of our country, opens the way to change at the top of the state,” said a statement by the Catholic group known as the National Episcopal Conference of Congo. “However, from the analysis of the elements observed by this mission, we find that the results of the presidential election … do not correspond to the data collected by our observation mission from the polling and counting stations.” The conference said it had deployed more than 40,000 observers to all polling centers across the country. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also said the election results did not match what was witnessed during the vote count. Besides Tshisekedi and Fayulu, the other contender was former Interior Minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, the preferred successor of President Joseph Kabila. The results came after nearly two weeks of speculation and reports of irregularities in the December 30 vote. If deemed legitimate, it would be the country’s first democratic transition of power since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960. Either way, the stage now seems set for the exit of Kabila, who has ruled the resource-rich nation with an iron fist since 2001. As the Congo’s population of 80 million awaited the highly anticipated outcome of the vote, the internet and text-messaging services were shut down on January 1. Kabila told Reuters the shutdown was done to preserve public order after “fictitious results” were circulated on social media. Congolese told CNN that internet services were reinstated Thursday, but before then some people resorted to using satellite feeds routed from Europe. Mixed reactions followed Tshisekedi’s win Thursday. Residents in the capital of Kinshasa took to the streets to celebrate his victory. But the mood was somber in Goma, where Fayulu supporters were dispersed by anti-riot police deployed to many areas in the city. The country’s bishops urged “everyone to show civic maturity” and to avoid any violence. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office issued a measured response Thursday to the vote, commending “all parties and stakeholders in the DRC for ensuring peace and stability during the election processes.” The statement did not congratulate Tshisekedi or mention the reported irregularities. US State Department warns Americans to leave The election had been deemed a pivotal moment for the Congo, determining whether the beleaguered country could transition into a true democracy. But the vote came at a difficult time. The eastern Congo is battling the country’s worst outbreak of Ebola, and violent protests erupted after the Independent National Electoral Commission announced that voters in the Ebola-stricken cities of Beni and Butembo – opposition strongholds – would not cast their ballots until March for security reasons. Yumbi also had elections postponed until March due to violence. It is unclear now how those late votes might affect the result. Furthermore, before the election, Kabila, 47, was criticized for implementing electronic voting machines in a country with sparse access to power. A fire in Kinshasa weeks before the election destroyed 80% of the city’s electronic voting machines, doing nothing to assuage concerns around voting methods. Riot police were deployed this week in the capital in anticipation of mass violence. The US State Department on Wednesday advised all Americans to leave the country. ’I don’t think that Kabila is Putin’ Tshisekedi, 55, had not been expected to win. In the run-up to the vote, speculation had mounted that Kabila would install Shadary as a placeholder president while he ruled from the shadows until 2023, when he could run again. Under the Congo’s Constitution, a president can serve only two terms. Kabila’s second term expired in 2016, meaning the election was long overdue. “People thought that Kabila would try to deploy a scenario like (Vladimir) Putin did with (Dmitry) Medvedev and remain the man he always was,” said Kris Berwouts, a Kinshasa-based author of several books about Central Africa.<doc-sep>The runner-up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s presidential election has rejected the result as an “electoral coup” and called on his followers to resist “a grave attack on the country’s dignity”, as the Catholic church said official results did not reflect polling station data. Martin Fayulu was beaten to second place by another opposition candidate, Felix Tshisekedi, who was declared the surprise winner of the 30 December presidential election in the early hours of Thursday. The result theoretically means the first electoral transfer of power in 59 years of independence in the DRC, but was deeply controversial because Fayulu had held a healthy lead in pre-election polling. It has also surprised some observers who believed authorities would ensure victory for the government candidate, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, who was handpicked by the outgoing president, Joseph Kabila, as his successor. Senior church leaders made clear that the announced results did not correspond with data collected by 40,000 observers the church deployed on polling day 12 days ago. The church has refused to say publicly who won according to its findings, but diplomats briefed on the church data say it indicated a clear victory for Fayulu, in line with pre-election polls that had put him at least 20 points ahead of Tshisekedi. Profile The Catholic church in the DRC Show The Catholic church in the Democratic Republic of Congo has enormous influence – in part a legacy of Belgian rule when it was seen as a means of reinforcing colonial control. Now, about half the 70m population are among its congregations, and it delivers vital health, educational and other services to huge numbers of people across the troubled, poverty-hit country. In the last two years, after concluding a much criticised deal which brought temporary peace but was flouted by the government, the church has increasingly led resistance to the efforts of outgoing president Joseph Kabila to remain in power. The pope has repeatedly mentioned the DRC, increasing the pressure on key players among the country’s elite. Last year, it called for peaceful protests and many died when security forces opened fire on demonstrators. The church is once again in the spotlight after Felix Tshisekedi, leader of the main opposition party, was named the winner of the 30 December presidential election. This poses a challenge to the church since church leaders have made it clear that data from the 40,000 observers they deployed on polling day show that another opposition leader, Martin Fayulu, won. “Historically the church has been an important and impartial political arbiter, with real moral authority but now the church leaders are in a difficult position… They are now likely to be seen as militating for one politician over another,” said Ben Shepherd, of London’s Chatham House. “How [the church leaders] react will go a long way to determining how the population react.” In a country as volatile as the DRC, an explicit statement backing a losing candidate could prompt chaos – something church leaders are anxious to avoid. But at the same time as playing a constructive role, they need to be seen as sticking to their principle too. “The church is the most neutral body in the country, certainly among civil society actors in politics,” said Stephanie Wolters, an analyst at the Institute for Security Studies, in South Africa. “At the moment they are walking a fine line,” said Wolters. Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback. Official figures published by the electoral commission gave Tshisekedi 38%, four points ahead of Fayulu, a respected former business executive. His camp suspects Tshisekedi, the leader of DRC’s main opposition party, won by cutting a power-sharing deal with Kabila. Kabila had engineered an electoral coup to deny him the presidency, Fayulu said on Thursday morning. In a statement issued later in the day, he said “unacceptable electoral fraud” had taken place that could lead to chaos across the country. Supporters of Felix Tshisekedi celebrate his victory on the streets of Kinshasa. Photograph: Kenny Katombe/Reuters “No Congolese can accept such treachery, such sham … we cannot accept at the end of this long crusade that the will of our people is not respected … All together, let us say ‘no’ to manufacturing of results and ‘no’ to an electoral holdup … Hand in hand may we pursue this struggle until the end,” Fayulu told his followers. The continuing tensions threaten to tip the vast central African country into a cycle of protest, violent repression and worsening insecurity – dashing hopes that the election would mark a turning point in the DRC’s troubled history. There were reports of scattered protests in some cities, with at least two reported deaths. Fayulu’s supporters had long feared Kabila would either rig the vote in favour of Shadary or do a power-sharing deal with Tshisekedi. Tshisekedi paid his respects to Kabila, whom he described as “an important partner … in democratic transition in our country”. Speaking to thousands of cheering supporters in the capital, Kinshasa, Tshisekedi said he would be the president “of all Congolese”. Barnabé Kikaya Bin Karubi, one of Kabila’s top advisers, said he accepted the result. “Of course we are not happy as our candidate [Shadary] lost, but the Congolese people have chosen and democracy has triumphed,” Kikaya told Reuters. Following an election itself delayed by two years, the announcement of results was postponed by a week. Adeline Van Houtte, research analyst for west Africa at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said the delay had raised suspicions that the government wanted time to negotiate a backroom deal with Tshisekedi. “A Tshisekedi presidency would be the least bad alternative to a Shadary victory for the regime as it would put a veil of legitimacy on the electoral process and would be more manageable than a Fayulu presidency,” Van Houtte said. Felix Tshisekedi gestures as he is surrounded by his wife and supporters after he was declared winner of the election. Photograph: Caroline Thirion/AFP/Getty Robert Besseling, executive director of the risk consultancy EXX Africa, said Kabila had decided not to risk announcing a Shadary victory.<doc-sep>Ten days after Congolese voters cast their ballots in their oft-delayed presidential election, the oft-delayed results were at last going to be announced late Wednesday night in Kinshasa, the capital. Riot police officers were deployed, citizens waited anxiously, the hour appointed by the electoral commission — 11 p.m. — came and went. But not a word was heard. It appeared there was yet another delay. Early Thursday morning, hours after the scheduled announcement, election officials began announcing the winners of hundreds of provincial deputy seats, but not the presidential race. What it all meant in a country whose longtime leader did all he could to extend his grip on power before finally agreeing to step down was anyone’s guess.<doc-sep>
By FRED OLUOCH More by this Author The Democratic Republic of Congo is likely to go for a coalition government between the winner, Felix Tshisekedi’s Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) and President Joseph Kabila’s Common Front for Congo (FCC). Even before the electoral commission made the surprise announcement that Mr Tshisekedi had won the election in the early hours of Thursday, the 55-year-old scion of the doyen of Congolese opposition Etienne Tshisekedi had been in talks with the Kabila side, making his opponents allege that the government had rigged the result in his favour. Congo watchers now say they would not be surprised if Emmanuel Shadary, President Kabila’s protégé who served as Interior Minister, were to be named prime minister in the new arrangement. By Friday, there was no evidence produced to show foul play, but there had been complaints of massive irregularities. Leaked information showed that the Catholic Church, which deployed 40,000 observers in the electoral zones, believes Martin Fayulu, the joint opposition candidate, won. In the official results, Mr Fayulu of the Lamuka (Wake Up) Coalition, whom exit polls had put ahead of the duo, got 34.8 per cent of the vote, while Mr Shadary got 23.57 per cent. Mr Fayulu dismissed the result as a fraud and vowed to challenge them in the Constitutional Court. His supporters say authorities rigged the result on behalf of Tshisekedi, in a deal to protect members of President Kabila’s outgoing administration and maintain his influence over the security forces. “We know that the Constitutional Court is composed of Kabila’s people, but we do not want to give any chance to Kabila and his team to say...you didn’t follow the law. We want to do all that we can do to have the clean result,” Mr Fayulu told BBC. Collaboration There was tension with fears of violence from disgruntled opposition supporters but at the same time, there was a ray of hope of a transition as the opposition prepares to take over the reins in a country that has not seen a peaceful transfer of power in close to six decades. Observers say that the collaboration between Mr Tshisekedi’s campaign and the Kabila side had existed all along. On January 7, Jean-Marc Kabunda, spokesperson of the Tshisekedi campaign team, announced at a press conference that they were going to meet the team of Mr Shadary because, “President Kabila and Tshisekedi have an interest in meeting to prepare for the peaceful and civilised transfer of power.” After the announcement of the results on January 10 showing that he had won with 38.57 per cent, a handle with Mr Tshisekedi’s name tweeted thanking President Kabila, “for giving me this opportunity to also taste the presidency. I swear in the name of the Philadelphia church that I will grant you all the support you will need....” The handle is not verified and The EastAfrican could not independently ascertain its authenticity. Stephanie Wolters, the head of the Division for Conflict Prevention and Risk Analysis at the Institute for Security Studies, said that it is possible President Kabila could have made a deal with Mr Tshisekedi in return for protection. “The proof will come when Mr Tshisekedi forms the Cabinet, who will become the Prime Minister and whether he will continue with the army generals or change them,” said Ms Wolters. Rejection France, a key DRC development partner also questioned the results. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called for clarity on presidential election results because the surprise victory of Mr Tshisekedi was at odds with what was seen on the ground. “We must have clarity on these results, which are the opposite of what we expected,” Le Drian told CNews. The powerful Catholic Church said the provisional result of December's presidential election, naming Tshisekedi as winner, does not reflect the data its observers collected from polling stations. "...The result does not correspond with the data collected by our observer mission from polling stations and counting centres," said Father Donatien Nshole, spokesman for Cenco which represents the country's Catholic bishops. According to the Congo constitution, anybody with complains must file in the Constitutional Court within 14 days of the announcement of the results. The court declares the result and its decision is final. Dr Mialano Tangania, member of the Lamuka Coalition who lives in Kenya, told The EastAfrican that they are confident the court will nullify the election results.