Congo\u2019s constitutional court on Tuesday upheld the results of last month\u2019s election that declared\u00a0President Felix Tshisekedi\u00a0the winner, rejecting a petition by an opposition candidate to annul the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMr. Tshisekedi Tshilombo Felix Antoine has been elected president of (Congo) by a majority of votes cast,\u201d said Judge Kamuleta Badibanga Dieudonne, president of the constitutional court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court called a petition by opposition candidate Theodore Ngoy to redo the vote unfounded. Ngoy, who finished with less than 1% of the vote, was the only candidate to file an appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About 18 million people cast ballots in the election, which had a turnout of more than a 40%, according to the election commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tshisekedi won reelection with more than 70% of the vote as opposition candidates and their supporters questioned the validity of the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The vote was\u00a0mired with logistical problems.\u00a0Many polling stations were late in opening or didn\u2019t open at all. Some lacked materials, and many voter cards had smudged ink that made them illegible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Congo has a history of disputed elections that can turn violent, and there\u2019s little confidence among many Congolese in the country\u2019s institutions. Before the results were announced last month, opposition candidates, including\u00a0frontrunner Moise Katumbi, said they rejected the results and called on the population to mobilize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a statement earlier this month Katumbi accused the electoral commission of planning chaos in order to keep the regime in power and called on the head of the commission to resign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHis resignation is not negotiable for, more than anyone else, he has mismanaged the all electoral process which ended up being nothing but a sham of elections,\u201d said Katumbi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neither he or other opposition candidates filed an appeal with the constitutional court, saying they didn\u2019t believe it would rule independently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Congo\u2019s constitutional court on Tuesday upheld the results of last month\u2019s election that declared\u00a0President Felix Tshisekedi\u00a0the winner, rejecting a petition by an opposition candidate to annul the vote. \u201cMr. Tshisekedi Tshilombo Felix Antoine has been elected president of (Congo) by a majority of votes cast,\u201d said Judge Kamuleta Badibanga Dieudonne, president of the constitutional court. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,15],"tags":[7,26,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-38486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-politics","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-politics"},"yoast_head":"\n