LONDON — It is the end of the Kabila era in the DRC, but it seems that it is not the end of election rigging. Opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi was declared as the winner, but another opposition leader, Martin Fayulu who came second in the December elections, is crying foul play and is taking his case to the country’s Constitutional Court. Backed by the country’s Catholic Church, he wants a recount. SADC has suggested a unity government, which was implemented so successfully in South Africa and have added its voice to that of UN observers and the European Union for a recount. The DRC is four times bigger than France with extensive mining resources and the potential to destabilise the whole region; it may serve the international community and investors better to put pressure on the DRC to get this election right than accept a flawed election. – Linda van Tilburg
By Thulasizwe Sithole
The declaration of Felix Tshisekedi as the winner of the Presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo took everybody by surprise. It ended the rule of Joseph Kabila, but the joy was short-lived when it became clear that Tshisekedi may not have been the real winner. The Financial Times reports that according to a “credible parallel tabulation”, it was Martin Fayulu, another opposition leader and former executive from ExxonMobil who managed to attract the most votes. The paper also alludes to a backroom deal between Kabila who ruled the past 17 years and Tshisekedi, and says while Kabila may be congratulating himself on his cunning plan, “time and time again, through sheer force of will, the Congolese people has thwarted his plans.”
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Street protests eventually forced Kabila to stand down and allow the December elections. For the first time since the DRC’s independence from Belgium in 1960, there was the real prospect of a transfer of power to a democratically elected President. But Kabila was not planning to let go. He tried to get a proxy, Emmanuel Shadary voted in and when that failed, it is thought that “conferring victory on opposition leader Mr Tshisekedi” may have been a third straw that the former leader tried to clasp.
#DRC govt & CENI should listen to @SADC_News on election results & show their working. Due process must be respected on @MartinFayulu legal challenge. Critical moment for DRC & wider region – the world is watching
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) January 14, 2019
Fayulu is challenging the results in the country’s Constitutional Court and it is thought his chances of getting a successful result is limited as most of the judges have been appointed by Kabila. The FT however points to a case in Kenya where the Supreme Court annulled an election and says the DRC Court should insist on a detailed breakdown of results from the electoral commission and if the electoral commission failed to give details, “a recount or rerun” should be ordered.
The FT points to past practices where the international community have “in the interest of supposed stability”, endorsed results they know to be false. It cautions the international community, particularly South Africa and Angola not to back results from a flawed election process. It sees “turning a blind eye to electoral fraud” as a betrayal of so many Congolese voters who have died in protests since 2016.
The Congolese election, although flawed is seen by the FT as a trend towards democracy in Africa that have historically been dominated by coups d’etat. The paper says that the Congolese “made their will clear”. The era of elites plundering the mineral wealth and coffers of Africa with the help of foreign companies should end. The FT encourages anyone with influence to join the Congolese people in that cry.
