Congo, Jan 11 – The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Constitutional Court has upheld President Tshisekedi’s reelection. The court rejected the legal challenges against the reelection of Tshisekedi.
The court’s decision paved way for incumbent president to assume office, serving for another five years, after winning the December elections in landslide defeat to three other contenders of Congo’s top seat.
Congo’s court said that the irregularities that were witnessed in the polls did not disrupt the tally of the results. “Even when taking reported irregularities and their influence on the ballot into account, the order of arrivals is not disrupted,” said Dieudonne Kamuleta, the court’s president.
Landslide win
Tshisekedi won December elections with 73 percent of the total votes cast followed far behind by Businessman Moise Katumbi at 18 percent, while Martin Fayulu got 5 percent and more than 20 other candidates including Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dennis Mukwege got less than 1 percent.
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The December elections saw 18 million Congolese turning out to cast their ballot, which is 40 percent of Congo’s total eligible voters. As of December 2023, Congo has a total of 44 million registered voters.
Credibility of results
Theodore Ngoyi, one of the presidential candidates who got less than 1 percent of the votes had opened a legal battle challenging Tshisekedi’s reelection. However, Opposition Leader Martin Fayulu had refused to challenge Tshisekedi’s reelection saying that the court was not trustworthy.
He added that the second largest country in Africa didn’t witness credible elections. “Our position remains the same: we did not witness credible elections,” he said after the verdict.
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Felix Tshisekedi will serve his second term in office after taking over from Joseph Kabila in 2018. He will be in charge of the world’s mineral-rich country, including cobalt whose demand is rising sharply due to increasing demand for electric vehicles.
