Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi waves to his supporters after casting his poll within a polling station right through the presidential elections in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023.

Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP

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Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP

Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi waves to his supporters after casting his poll within a polling station right through the presidential elections in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023.

Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP

KINSHASA, Congo — Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi has received reelection with greater than 70% of the vote, the rustic’s election fee stated Sunday as opposition applicants and their supporters wondered the validity of the effects.

The initial result of the Dec. 20 election have been introduced within the capital, Kinshasa, amid calls for from the opposition and a few civil society teams for the vote to be rerun because of huge logistical issues that they stated had undermined the vote casting.

Tshisekedi’s overwhelming declared victory used to be more likely to gasoline the ones considerations. The second one-place candidate used to be businessman Moise Katumbi, who won 18% of the vote, and Martin Fayulu, who won 5%, completed 3rd. Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege, a health care provider famend for treating ladies brutalized by means of sexual violence in japanese Congo, were given lower than 1%.

Talking from his headquarters within the capital after the effects have been introduced, Tshisekedi thanked his supporters for giving him some other five-year time period.

“You believed in my dedication in order that our nation can to find its position within the live performance of countries,” he stated. “You may have embraced my imaginative and prescient of society. I can spare no effort for extra jobs, extra buying energy, extra get entry to to elementary services and products in any respect ranges.”

About 18 million other people voted within the election, which had a turnout of greater than a 40%, in step with the election fee. The effects will likely be despatched to the constitutional court docket for affirmation, election leader Denis Kadima stated.

Applicants opposing the effects have two days to post their claims, and the constitutional court docket then has seven days to come to a decision. The overall effects are anticipated on January 10, and the president is scheduled to be sworn in on the finish of that month.

Congo has a historical past of disputed elections that may flip violent, and there is little self assurance amongst many Congolese within the nation’s establishments. Ahead of the effects have been introduced Sunday, opposition applicants, together with Katumbi, stated they rejected the effects and referred to as at the inhabitants to mobilize.

The logistical issues integrated many polling stations being past due in opening or now not opening in any respect. Some lacked fabrics, and lots of voter playing cards had smudged ink that made them illegible.

Vote casting within the election needed to be prolonged right into a 2nd day— one thing native observers and civil society organizations have referred to as unlawful — and portions of the rustic have been nonetheless casting ballots 5 days after election day.

Safety forces attack a supporter of presidential candidate Martin Fayulu right through clashes outdoor his celebration’s headquarters, in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023.

Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP

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Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP

Safety forces attack a supporter of presidential candidate Martin Fayulu right through clashes outdoor his celebration’s headquarters, in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023.

Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP

“If a international nation considers those elections to be elections, there is a downside,” Fayulu stated at a information convention within the capital Sunday prior to the effects have been introduced. “It is a farce, do not settle for (the effects).”

Violence used to be already flaring in portions of the rustic prior to the effects have been introduced. Within the japanese town of Goma, formative years barricaded some primary streets difficult a revote. Previous this week, clashes erupted between a few of Fayulu’s supporters and cops who fired tear fuel at protesters who threw rocks and barricaded themselves within the opposition headquarters.

“Those elections are an instance of fraud and ballot-box stuffing, flouting any clear and credible electoral procedure and, additionally, democracy,” stated Bienvenu Matumo, a member of LUCHA, a neighborhood rights crew.

Main as much as and right through the vote, the election fee used to be accused of now not being clear sufficient. The East African Group stated its election observer project used to be now not granted get entry to to Congo, and the Ecu Union canceled its project after government didn’t authorize the usage of satellite tv for pc apparatus by means of EU displays.

Congo analysts say the hundreds of observers that have been within the nation have been not able to mention whether or not the irregularities had an have an effect on at the general integrity of the effects, leaving it to the election fee.

Tshisekedi already has spent a lot of his time in place of job seeking to achieve legitimacy after a disputed 2018 election that some observers stated Fayulu had in fact received.

General, Tshisekedi’s observe report has been spotty. He is struggled to stem violence within the east, a purpose he campaigned on.

Warfare in japanese Congo has raged for many years, with greater than 120 armed teams preventing for energy, sources and to give protection to their communities. However the violence has spiked right through Tshisekedi’s time period with the resurgence of the M23 rebels, who’ve displaced thousands and thousands of other people and seized swaths of land. The preventing averted 1.5 million other people from registering to vote.

Makes an attempt to quell the violence with an East African Power constructed from troops from neighboring international locations have failed. The power is pulling out, together with a U.N. peacekeeping project that has been in Congo for many years.

Nonetheless, Tshisekedi’s projects growing loose well being maintain pregnant moms and young children and offering loose number one training has modified the lives of a few other people dwelling in faraway villages.

“My brothers can move to university now with out my folks paying, which permits my father to position that cash to shopping for meals for the circle of relatives,” John Nlaza, a resident of a small village in Kongo Central province instructed The Related Press.

Congolese analysts stated you must view Tshisekedi’s win with warning given the numerous uncertainty of the presidential election’s validity.

“The opposition’s contesting of the effects is not just a predictable response, nevertheless it additionally highlights the endurance of a deeper disaster of legitimacy on the most sensible of the state,” Tresor Kibangula, a political analyst on the Congolese analysis institute Ebuteli, stated. “This fight relies on (the opposition’s) skill to mobilize the Congolese other people for its reason, with a purpose to reversing the steadiness of energy.”