Congo faces increasing foreign pressure for recount of votes: The Standard

The Democratic Republic of Congo has been facing growing pressure from its African neighbors and elsewhere to demand a recount of the disputed presidential election in the context of a dispute that threatens new violence in the country. this unstable country.

The December 30 vote was to announce Congo's first democratic transfer of power in six decades of independence and a new era after President Joseph Kabila's chaotic 18-year rule.
However, monitoring groups found many irregularities, including faulty voting machines and poorly managed polls, eclipsing discussions of democratic progress in the vast country of 80 million residents.
Martin Fayulu, former Exxon Mobil executive, won second place with more than 60% of the vote and said that the official winner, the opposition leader, Felix Tshisekedi, had reached an agreement with Kabila to be declared the winner.

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Tshisekedi and Kabila deny that.
The International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), a 12-member body comprising allies from Kinshasa, Angola and the Republic of Congo, expressed "great concern".
"We suggest that relevant structures consider counting votes to ensure transparency of results," he added.
The pressure on Kabila has increased since the vote, in part because the influential Catholic Church in the Congo said the statistics of its 40,000-member monitoring team showed a different winner than the one announced by the electoral commission.
France, Belgium, the United States and Great Britain all expressed their concern. But perceived criticism in Africa could have more influence, with the approval of regional partners, crucial for the legitimacy of President-elect Tshisekedi.

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The ICGLR statement Sunday night echoed the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which has Kinshasa allies such as South Africa and Angola.
Government spokesman Lambert Mende, however, told Reuters that it was up to the Constitutional Court to decide on a recount.
"It's not up to an organization, a foreign state, to tell a judge how to draw one's own conclusions," he told Reuters. "Counting votes is a verification technique that only a judge can decide."
Fayulu went to court for fraud and the Catholic Church also took his share.
"We recommend that the (electoral commission) CENI recount the votes to rebadure all stakeholders," said Donatien N'shole, secretary general of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Congo.

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The post-election violence isolated in Congo has raised fears of a return to the type of conflict and upheaval that has killed millions of people since the 1990s and destabilized the region.
Congo is the world's largest producer of cobalt, a mineral used in electric car batteries and mobile phones, and the largest copper producer in Africa. She also extracts gold and diamonds.

Related Topics

TshisekediKabila International Republic of Congo International Conference of the Great Lakes RegionSADCCSouth Africa Development CommunityReutersFayulu