The dispute over the December 30 presidential vote has raised fears that the political crisis could turn into a bloodbath

KINSHASA, DR Congo – DR Congo's top court said it will give its verdict Saturday, January 19, on final presidential election results which have been challenged at home and abroad, spurning an appeal from the African Union to suspend the announcement.

The Constitutional Court is urgently hearing an appeal over the outcome of the disputed December 30 vote to choose a successor to long-serving President Joseph Kabila, with runner-up Martin Fayulu claiming he was cheated of victory – an assertion repeated elsewhere.

"It (the ruling) will take place today at 3:00 pm (1400 GMT or 10 pm Philippine time)," Constitutional Court spokesman Baudouin Mwehu told Agence France-Presse. However there was no verdict by well after 1500 GMT or 11 pm Philippine time.

Hundreds of supporters of opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi, the declared winner of the election, gathered outside the court holding placards saying "No to interference" and "Independent country" as riot police stood nearby.

On January 10, the electoral commission said Tshisekedi had provisionally won with 38.57 percent of the vote against Fayulu's 34.8 percent.

But Fayulu denounced the figures as an "electoral coup" forged by Tshisekedi and Kabila, and filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court.

At a summit on Thursday, AU leaders said there were "serious doubts" about the vote's provisional results and called for the announcement of the final results to be suspended.

But DR Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende had snubbed the AU demand saying: "I don't think it is the business of the government or even of the African Union to tell the court what it should do."

The AU also announced that its commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, currently the AU chairman, were expected to fly to DR Congo on Monday.

The European Union said it joined the AU in inviting "all the Congolese players to work constructively with this (AU) delegation to find a post-electoral solution which respects the Congolese people's vote."

The court is due to give a ruling ahead of the scheduled swearing-in of the next president on Tuesday.

The Financial Times and other foreign media have reported seeing documents that confirm Fayulu as the winner.

"If the court declares Tshisekedi victor, the risk of isolation would be enormous and untenable for a country positioned right in the middle of the continent," Adeline Van Houtte of the Economist Intelligence Unit wrote on Twitter.

Fayulu's camp had hailed the AU appeal for the final result to be put on hold, but Tshisekedi's entourage branded it "scandalous."

The dispute has raised fears that the political crisis that began when Kabila refused to step down at the end of his constitutional term in office two years ago, could turn into a bloodbath.

The US ambassador to Kinshasa Mike Hammer on Saturday protested against an internet shutdown tweeting: "20 days without internet are 20 days too many. It needs to be restored now. Democracies thrive and societies prosper when people are informed and can communicate freely."

The vast and chronically unstable country lived through two regional wars in 1996-97 and 1998-2003, and the previous two elections, in 2006 and 2011, were marred by bloody clashes.

The AU has taken the firmest line of all major international bodies with regard to the post-election crisis.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC), a bloc that includes Angola and South Africa, initially called for a recount and a unity government.

But in a later communique, it made no mention of those demands, instead calling on Congolese politicians to "address any electoral grievances in line with the Democratic Republic of Congo's Constitution and relevant electoral laws." – Rappler.com </s> The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has rejected a call from the African Union (AU) to suspend announcement of the final results of last month’s presidential election, asserting the independence of the constitutional court considering an appeal of the vote count.

"The court is independent, both of us and the African Union," a government spokesman said, adding that it is not the business of the government or even of the African Union to tell the court what it should do."

The DRC’s constitutional court is expected to rule as early as Friday on declared runner-up Martin Fayulu’s request for a recount, alleging fraud.

The AU continental body issued a statement late Thursday calling for Congo's government to suspend the announcement of final results, citing “serious doubts'” about the vote.

Opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi was declared the winner of elections Sunday, but Fayulu has challenged the outcome in court, claiming that his opponent made a deal with outgoing president Joseph Kabila.

Fayulu's opposition coalition said Friday he captured 61 percent of the vote, citing figures from the Catholic Church, which placed 40,000 election observers across the Central African country. The coalition said Tshisekedi won 18 percent of the vote. By law, only the electoral commission can announce election results in Congo.

Pre-election polls indicated that Fayulu was the favorite to replace outgoing President Joseph Kabila. Kabila backed another candidate, his former interior minister, Emmanuel Shadary.

 

 The AU statement said that heads of state and government agreed to “urgently dispatch'' a high-level delegation to Congo, as early as Monday, to find “a way out of the post-electoral crisis,'' in response to concern of Congo's many neighbors that more unrest could spill across borders.

 

 The DRC’s constitutional court could uphold the election results, order a recount or order a new election.

Meanwhile, U.N. Human Rights office said that it has documented 34 deaths, 59 wounded and 241 arbitrary arrests in Congo since provisional election results were announced on January 10. </s> President of Congo’s National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI), Corneille Nangaa addresses a news conference on the upcoming presidential election in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo December 20, 2018. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

KINSHASA (Reuters) – Democratic Republic of Congo rejected on Friday an African Union demand to delay announcing final results from its presidential election, compounding the turmoil surrounding a chaotic vote that many fear could fan widespread unrest.

In a surprise announcement on Thursday, the AU called for the results to be postponed because of “serious doubts” over the conduct of the election, which was supposed to mark Congo’s first democratic handover of power in 59 years of independence but which the runner-up candidate says was rigged.

The final tally will be released once the Constitutional Court has ruled on challenges to the provisional results. It is expected to decide on appeals, including that of opposition leader and second-placed Martin Fayulu, on Friday or Saturday.

“I do not think anyone has the right to tell the court what to do. I am not under the impression (the AU) fully understands Congo’s judicial process,” government spokesman Lambert Mende said. “No country in the world can accept that its judicial process be controlled by an (outside) organisation.”

The AU’s statement said it would send a delegation to Congo to seek “a way out of the post-electoral crisis”. The mission will include Rwandan President and AU chair Paul Kagame, Moussa Faki, chairman of the AU Commission, and other heads of state.

Mende said the AU delegation was welcome, but that the post-election process would remain unchanged.

Provisional results announced last week showed a shock victory for opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi. But Fayulu requested a recount, saying he had won with over 60 percent of the vote and that Tshisekedi was announced victor only after striking a deal with outgoing President Joseph Kabila.

Congo’s influential Catholic Church said the official results were inconsistent with its own tallies. Three diplomats briefed on the Church’s findings said they pointed to a clear victory for Fayulu, a former Exxon Mobil country manager.

Both Kabila and Tshisekedi’s camps have denied any such manoeuvre. They have also denied accusations of fraud.

But the AU statement heaps more pressure on Kinshasa to address what independent monitors described as serious flaws in the process including faulty balloting machines and polling stations at which many were unable to vote.

An AU endorsement of the result is crucial for the legitimacy of the next president.

Congo, a vast and volatile country of 80 million people sprawling across central Africa, is the world’s leading miner of cobalt, used in electric car batteries and mobile phones, and Africa’s biggest copper producer.

But poor governance, endemic corruption and violent factional anarchy, especially in the east, have left many in poverty and dissatisfied with Kabila’s 18-year rule.

Many Congolese are now concerned that the election dispute will fan widespread, violent disorder.

The U.N. human rights office said on Friday it had documented 34 people killed, 59 wounded and 241 arbitrary arrests since the provisional results were announced on Jan. 10. </s> The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has rebuked the African Union (AU) over its calls to suspend the announcement of the final results of its presidential elections, insisting that the Constitutional Court assessing the vote's legality was impartial.

The court will rule on Friday on an appeal filed by election runner-up Martin Fayulu - who says he was cheated of his victory in the December 30 election.

"The court is independent," government spokesman Lambert Mende said on Friday. "I don't think it is the business of the government or even of the African Union to tell the court what it should do."

At a summit in Addis Ababa, AU leaders announced late on Thursday that the Union would dispatch envoys to Kinshasa in a bid to end the crisis.



AU commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, currently the AU chairman, are expected to fly in on Monday.

The summit also said there were "serious doubts" about the vote's provisional results.



They called for the announcement of the final results to be suspended - a matter currently in the hands of the Constitutional Court, which must issue a ruling ahead of the scheduled swearing-in of the next president on Tuesday.



"I don't know if there are countries where people can interfere like that in a legal procedure," said Mende.



"The court will do what is right for showing the truth. We should all trust it."

Appeal

On January 10, the electoral commission declared opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi provisional winner in the vote to choose a successor to outgoing President Joseph Kabila - with 38.57 percent of the vote against Fayulu's 34.8 percent.



But Fayulu denounced the figures as an "electoral coup" forged by Tshisekedi and Kabila, and filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court a day later, claiming to have won 61 percent of the vote.

The Financial Times and other foreign media have reported seeing documents that confirm Fayulu as the winner.



"If the court declares Tshisekedi victor, the risk of isolation would be enormous and untenable for a country positioned right in the middle of the continent," wrote Adeline Van Houtte of the Economist Intelligence Unit on Twitter.



Fayulu's camp hailed the AU appeal for the final result to be put on hold, but Tshisekedi's entourage lashed it as "scandalous".



His lawyer and deputy chief of staff, Peter Kazadi, denounced the AU's appeal as having "no legal basis".



It was, he said, the result of manoeuvering by "a small number of countries", which he did not name, and "shamed the institution" of the AU.

Fears of violence

The dispute has raised fears that the political crisis, which began when Kabila refused to step down at the end of his constitutional term in office two years ago, could turn into a bloodbath.

The vast and chronically unstable country has lived through two regional wars in 1996-1997 and 1998-2003, and the previous two elections, in 2006 and 2011, were marred by bloody clashes.

Since provisional results were released on January 10, at least 34 people have been killed, the United Nations said.

Its rights office in Congo also documented 59 people wounded along with 241 "arbitrary arrests". </s> Officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo say the announcement of the results of the presidential election has been postponed.

Officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo say the announcement of the results of the presidential election has been postponed.

Corneille Nangaa said that the results of the December 30 election will not be made public on Sunday as expected.

He said the official electoral commission will confirm the delay later in the day.

The postponement in announcing the results is expected to increase tensions in the African state.

The Catholic Church, an influential voice in the heavily Catholic nation, said that data reported by its 40,000 election observers deployed in polling stations show a clear winner.

The church urged the electoral commission to announce accurate results.

The government has already cut internet access across the vast Central African country to prevent any speculation on social media about who might have won the election. </s> The announcement of the results of the Congo's presidential election has been postponed, the country's top electoral official said.

The winner of the Dec. 30 election will not be made public Sunday as expected, the head of the national electoral commission Corneille Nangaa told The Associated Press. The electoral commission will confirm the delay later Sunday.

The postponement in announcing the winner may increase tensions, as some Congolese see it as a way for President Joseph Kabila's ruling party to manipulate the results in order to cling to power.

The Catholic Church, an influential voice in this strongly Catholic nation, said that it already knows there is a clear victor, according to data reported by its 40,000 election observers deployed in polling stations. The church urged the electoral commission to announce accurate results.

As regulations say only the electoral commission can announce election results, the church did name the winner. The government has already cut internet access across the vast Central African country to prevent any speculation on social media about who might have won the election.

Congo faces what could be its first democratic, peaceful transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. Election observers and the opposition have raised concerns about voting irregularities as the country chooses a successor to longtime ruler Kabila, although a landslide win by one of the opposition candidates could remove any doubts that the election was skewed to the ruling party's candidate.

The United States and the African Union, among others, have urged Congo to release results that reflect the true will of the people. The U.S. has threatened sanctions against those who undermine the democratic process. Western election observers were not invited to watch the vote.

While Congo has been largely calm on and after the Dec. 30 vote, President Donald Trump informed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that about 80 military personnel and "appropriate combat equipment" had been deployed to neighboring Gabon to support the security of U.S. citizens and staffers and diplomatic facilities. More will be deployed as needed to Gabon, Congo or neighboring Republic of Congo, he wrote.

Ahead of the vote, the U.S. ordered "non-emergency" government employees and family members to leave the country.

Congo's ruling party, which backs Kabila's preferred candidate Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, has called the church's attitude "irresponsible and anarchist."

Leading opposition candidate Martin Fayulu, a businessman and lawmaker, has accused Congolese authorities of impeding his campaign. His campaign manager, Pierre Lumbi, on Saturday accused the electoral commission of being "in the process of postponing the publication of the results."

The delay is because of the slow compilation of the results by electoral officials. By Friday evening, the commission had compiled only 44 percent of results, said Jean-Pierre Kalamba, who said the process had been slowed by the requirement that only manually counted ballots could be used.

At stake is a vast country rich in the minerals that power the world's mobile phones and laptops, yet desperately underdeveloped. Some 40 million people were registered to vote, though at the last minute about 1 million voters were barred by the electoral commission which cited a deadly Ebola virus outbreak in eastern Congo. The eastern region is an opposition center and critics said the disenfranchisement of voters there undermines the election's credibility.

The presidential election took place more than two years behind schedule, while a court ruled that Kabila could stay in office until the vote was held. The delay led to sometimes deadly protests as authorities cracked down, and Shadary is now under European Union sanctions for his role in the crackdown as interior minister at the time.

Kabila, who took office in 2001 after his father was assassinated, is barred from serving three consecutive terms but has hinted that he could run again in 2023. That has led many Congolese to suspect that he will rule from the shadows if Shadary takes office.

Internet and text messaging services were cut off the day after the election in an apparent effort by the government to prevent social media speculation about the results. The U.S. has urged the government to restore internet service, and a U.N. human rights spokeswoman has warned that "these efforts to silence dissent could backfire considerably when the results are announced." </s> AFP | Opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi was declared winner of the Democratic Republic of Congo's presidential election

DR Congo's top court on Sunday declared opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi the winner of disputed presidential elections after throwing out a legal challenge by the runner-up.

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Announcing the final results of the long awaited poll, the Constitutional Court said Tshisekedi had won by a simple majority, paving the way for him to take over from longterm leader Joseph Kabila in an official ceremony on Tuesday.

Runner-up Martin Fayulu immediately called on the international community to reject the results, after the court said his appeal was "unfounded".

"I ask the entire international community not to recognise a power that has neither legitimacy nor legal standing to represent the Congolese people," he said of Tshisekedi, declaring himself "the only legitimate president".

Tatiana Carayannis, from the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum: the election results have 'sowed the seeds for instability'

Tshisekedi's victory was first announced earlier this month based on provisional results by the Independent National Election Commission (CENI) but it was challenged both at home and abroad, with the African Union appealing for the final results to be delayed.

On Sunday, the Consitutional Court said Fayulu had failed to prove any inaccuracies.

"Only the CENI has produced authentic and sincere results," judge Noel Kilomba said.

EU pleads for calm

But the European Union said Sunday that "doubts remain" over the election result.

"As expressed by the AU (African Union) high level consultative meeting on Thursday in Addis, doubts remain regarding the conformity of the result," an EU spokeswoman said.

With fears running high that the poll dispute could plunge the perennially unstable central African nation into fresh turmoil, an EU spokeswoman pleaded nevertheless for all sides to refrain from "any action that could lead to violence".

At the Constitutional Court’s announcement, hundreds of supporters of Tshisekedi had gathered outside the court holding placards saying "No to interference" and "Independent country" as riot police stood nearby.

'Not their business'

The election commission announced on January 10 that Tshisekedi had provisionally won with 38.57 percent of the vote against Fayulu's 34.8 percent.

Fayulu denounced the figures as an "electoral coup" forged by Tshisekedi and Kabila, and filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court.

At a summit on Thursday, AU leaders said there were "serious doubts" about the vote's provisional results and called for the announcement of the final results to be suspended.

'There isn't much the African Union can do'

But DR Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende had snubbed the demand, saying: "I don't think it is the business of the government or even of the African Union to tell the court what it should do."

The AU also announced that its commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, currently the AU chairman, were expected to fly to DR Congo on Monday. But following the court decision, the African Union postponed the visit, spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo said on Sunday.

The European Union said it joined the AU in inviting "all the Congolese players to work constructively with this (AU) delegation to find a post-electoral solution which respects the Congolese people's vote".

Appeal

The Financial Times and other foreign media have reported seeing documents that confirm Fayulu as the winner.

"If the court declares Tshisekedi victor, the risk of isolation would be enormous and untenable for a country positioned right in the middle of the continent," Adeline Van Houtte of the Economist Intelligence Unit wrote on Twitter.

Fayulu's camp had hailed the AU appeal for the final result to be put on hold, but Tshisekedi's entourage branded it "scandalous".

The dispute has raised fears that the political crisis that began when Kabila refused to step down at the end of his constitutional term in office two years ago, could turn into a bloodbath.

The vast and chronically unstable country lived through two regional wars in 1996-97 and 1998-2003, and the previous two elections, in 2006 and 2011, were marred by bloody clashes.

The AU has taken the firmest line of all major international bodies with regard to the post-election crisis.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC), a bloc that includes Angola and South Africa, initially called for a recount and a unity government.

But in a later communique, it made no mention of those demands, instead calling on Congolese politicians to "address any electoral grievances in line with the Democratic Republic of Congo's Constitution and relevant electoral laws".

On Sunday though, South Africa congratulated Felix Tshisekedi on becoming president-elect. "President Cyril Ramaphosa has congratulated Mr Felix Tshisekedi Tshilombo," the presidency said in a statement, calling for "all parties and all stakeholders in the DRC to respect the decision of the Constitutional Court".

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters) </s> KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - Congo's top electoral official says the announcement of the results of the presidential election has been postponed.

Corneille Nangaa told The Associated Press that the results of the Dec. 30 election will not be made public Sunday as expected. He said the official electoral commission will confirm the delay later Sunday.

The postponement in announcing the results is expected to increase tensions in Congo.

The Catholic Church, an influential voice in the heavily Catholic nation, said that data reported by its 40,000 election observers deployed in polling stations show a clear winner. The church urged the electoral commission to announce accurate results.

The government has already cut internet access across the vast Central African country to prevent any speculation on social media about who might have won the election.

This photo taken Friday Jan. 4, 2019 shows a blackboard with presidential election results for that specific polling station, in a school in Kinshasa, Congo. Congo faces what could be its first democratic, peaceful transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960, but election observers and the opposition have raised numerous concerns about voting irregularities as the country chooses a successor to longtime President Joseph Kabila. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay) </s> Congo's electoral commission has delayed the country's long-awaited presidential election until Dec. 30, citing a recent fire that destroyed 80 percent of the voting machines in the capital.

The vote had been scheduled for Sunday. This is the latest of several delays in the election originally scheduled for late 2016, amid opposition concerns that President Joseph Kabila was looking for ways to stay in power.

After last week's fire destroyed some 8,000 voting machines in Kinshasa, officials found replacement machines but had to get 5 million new ballots printed, said Corneille Nangaa, head of the national electoral commission.

He called on the country of some 40 million voters for calm.

Tensions have risen in Congo ahead of the election.

On Wednesday the governor of Kinshasa, Andre Kimbuta, banned all election rallies in the capital, citing security concerns. That prevented main opposition leader Martin Fayulu from holding a rally. Thousands of angry supporters gathered but police dispersed them with tear gas.

Several people have been killed in recent days at chaotic opposition rallies in various parts of the country, leading the U.N. Security Council to issue a statement this week calling on Congo's government to "swiftly investigate." The council also called for a "violence-free environment."

On Dec. 12, the U.N.'s special representative in Congo denounced "the obstacles encountered by some opposition candidates during their efforts to hold public meetings in certain cities around the country." Among several incidents, Fayulu was prevented from landing in Kindu where he was scheduled hold a rally on Dec. 9, according to his campaign manager, Pierre Lumbi.

"I am concerned by the growing tensions ... and the risk of escalating violence that could lead to the commission of grave crimes," the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, said in a statement on Thursday. She warned that anyone who "incites or participates in mass violence" could be prosecuted.

Other observers have expressed concern over whether adequate election materials have been distributed across the vast country that is more than three times the size of Texas.

Even before the delay was announced, some observers criticized the Kabila government for not making adequate preparations for the vote.

"We had seven years to prepare these elections and at the last minute the electoral commission gives the impression they are not ready for the vote," said Rev. Jean Marie Bomengola with the Episcopal Bishops Conference, which plans to deploy 40,000 election observers.
The Congolese government rejects a request by the African Union to delay the announcement of the final result of the 30 December 2018 general election, which is being appealed in the country's Constitutional Court amidst accusations of election fraud.