Congo: Opposition leader Tshisekedi wins presidential vote

Congo opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi has won the long-delayed presidential election, the electoral commission announced early Thursday, as the vast country braced for possible protests over alleged rigging.

Tshisekedi, who received more than 7 million votes, or 38 per cent, had not been widely considered the leading candidate and is relatively untested.

The son of late opposition leader Etienne, who pursued the presidency for many years, he surprised many last year by breaking away from an opposition effort to unite behind a single candidate.

Some observers have suggested that President Joseph Kabila's government sought to make a deal as hopes faded for a win for ruling party candidate Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, who received more than 4 million votes, or 23 per cent.

It is not immediately clear whether opposition candidate Martin Fayulu, who had vowed to clean up Congo's widespread corruption and led in polling, will contest the results.

The constitutional court has 14 days to validate them. Fayulu received more than 6 million votes, or 34 per cent.

This is Congo's first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence in 1960.

Kabila has ruled since 2001 in the troubled nation rich in the minerals key to smartphones around the world and has amassed vast wealth.

He is barred from serving three consecutive terms, but during more than two years of election delays many Congolese feared he'd find a way to stay in office.

"This is the coronation of a lifetime," the deputy secretary-general of Tshisekedi's party, Rubens Mikindo, said above the cheers at party headquarters.

"This is the beginning of national reconciliation."
Scores of people in the capital, Kinshasa, danced after the election results were announced long after midnight, but observers waited to see how other Congolese would respond, especially after Fayulu this week warned that the results were "not negotiable."
Activist groups on Wednesday urged people to "be ready to massively take to the streets" if results didn't match "the truth of the ballot boxes."
She added, will the African Union "consider a power transfer 'enough' or will they push for investigation and real result?"
On Wednesday afternoon, hours before results were announced, some Tshisekedi supporters began to celebrate at his Union for Democracy and Social Progress party headquarters, with calendars already printed saying "Felix Tshisekedi president."