DR Congo election: Felix Tshisekedi wins surprise victory

Opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi has secured a surprise win in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s presidential election, according to the country’s electoral commission.
The results came in the early hours of the morning in the Central African country, after nearly two weeks of speculation and reports of election irregularities. If deemed legitimate, this will be the country’s first democratic transition of power since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960.
The election had always been a three-horse race. The other two contenders were former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, the preferred successor of President Joseph Kabila, and businessman Martin Fayulu.
After the results, Fayulu said he categorically rejected the outcome and called for the release of the name “of the person who really was our people’s choice.”
His comments were echoed by French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who said that the election results did not match what was witnessed during the vote count.
Either way, the stage now seems set for the exit of Kabila, who has ruled the resource-rich Central African country with an iron fist since 2001.
Tension in the Congo
This election had been deemed a pivotal moment for the Congo, determining whether the beleaguered country could transition into a true democracy.
Furthermore, before the election Kabila, 47, was criticized for implementing electronic voting machines in a country with sparse access to power. A fire in the capital of Kinshasa weeks before the election destroyed 80% of the city’s electronic voting machines, doing nothing to assuage concerns around voting methods.
Congo is blessed with huge deposits of precious minerals such as diamonds, gold, and tantalum, and while in power Kabila accumulated vast wealth. From 1999 to 2002 alone, the Kabila regime transferred ownership of at least$5 billion of assets from the state-mining sector to private companies under its control, according to the United Nations.
Tshisekedi also comes from a storied political background. His father Etienne Tshisekedi founded the Union for Democracy and Social Progress, the oldest and largest opposition party of the Congo. Felix Tshisekedi took over the party following his father’s death in 2017.