Opposition’s Tshisekedi Declared Winner Of DRC Presidential Poll.

Opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi has won the long-awaited
presidential poll in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the
electoral commission said Thursday, paving the way for the
country’s first handover of power in 18 years.

“Having gained… 38.57 percent of the vote, Felix Tshisekedi is
provisionally declared the elected president of the Democratic
Republic of Congo,” said Corneille Nangaa, the head of the
Independent National Election Commission (CENI).

Shouts of joy erupted at the commission’s offices as the
historic results were announced.

The DRC has been in the grip of a two-year-old crisis over the
succession of President Joseph Kabila, who said last year he would
step down after nearly two decades in power.

The candidate he hand-picked to succeed him, loyalist, former
interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, came third in the
poll.

The other main opposition candidate, former oil executive Martin
Fayulu — who was tipped as favourite in the few pre-election
opinion polls — came second, official results showed.

According to the initial timetable set out by the CENI, the
definitive results are due on January 15 with the swearing-in of
the new president three days later.

The result could still be appealed in the Constitutional
Court.​

Who is Tshisekedi?

Tshisekedi, 55, hopes the elections will hand him the
presidential prize that eluded his late father Etienne, who founded
the DRC’s mainstream opposition party, the Union for Democracy and
Social Progress (UDPS), in 1982.

Tshisekedi junior took the helm of the party after his father
died in February 2017.

Known to his friends as “Fatshi,” he gained a Belgian diploma in
marketing and communication and rose doggedly through the party
ranks.

But he has never held high office or had management experience
and is hobbled by the lack of his father’s charisma.

“Etienne was stubborn and proud,” says one observer of the
country’s opposition.

“(But) Felix is more diplomatic, more conciliatory, more ready
to listen to others.”

On November 11, Tshisekedi joined six other opposition leaders
to rally behind a single unity candidate, Martin Fayulu, to take on
Shadary.

But the deal was rejected by the party’s rank and file.

Tshisekedi and fellow opposition leader Vital Kamerhe swiftly
abandoned the deal and ran on a joint ticket, effectively weakening
and splitting the opposition.

A father of five, he attends the same Pentecostal church in
Kinshasa as Fayulu.

AFP