According reports Sunday by news wire services seen online by APA, “announcing the final results of the much-delayed poll, the Constitutional Court said Tshisekedi had won by a simple majority”.
AFP in a story by news24 online reported that Martin Fayulu who is the runner-up, and had launched a legal challenge to the provisional results released earlier by the Independent National Election Commission (CENI), described the court’s decision as a “legal coup”, and “called on the international community to reject the results.”
“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”.
Tshisekedi’s victory was provisionally announced earlier this month by the 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 Constitutional Court said Fayulu’s claims were “unfounded” and he had failed to prove any inaccuracies in the figures, describing his call for a recount as “absurd”.
“Only the CENI has produced authentic and sincere results,” judge Noel Kilomba said.
The head of the court, Benedict Lwamba Bindu, went on to declare Tshisekedi as the “President of the Democratic Republic of Congo by simple majority”.
According to The Guardian, “Tshisekedi said early Sunday that the court’s decision confirming him as the winner of the presidential election was a victory for the entire country.
“It is Congo that won,” he said, speaking to his supporters. “It is not the victory of one camp against another. I am engaged in a campaign to reconcile all Congolese … The Congo that we are going to form will not be a Congo of division, hatred or tribalism. It will be a reconciled Congo, a strong Congo that will be focused on development, peace and security.”
At a summit on Thursday, AU leaders said there were “serious doubts” about the figures and called for the final results to be delayed.
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 had planned to send its commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat and Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, currently the AU chairman, to DRC on Monday.
Meanwhile, The Guardian online reported that “Government spokesman Lambert Mende said by telephone that the ruling party had ‘taken note’ of the court decision.
“ ‘Felix Tshisekedi will become the fifth president of the republic,’ Government spokesman Lambert Mende said by telephone that the ruling party had “taken note” of the court decision.
“Felix Tshisekedi will become the fifth president of the republic,” Mende said.