African Union Calls For Delay In Announcement Of DR Congo Presidential Vote Final Results

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2019) The African Union (AU) called for postponing the announcement of the final results of the presidential election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), citing "serious doubts on the conformity" of the preliminary results.

On Thursday, the AU heads of state and government met in the bloc's headquarters in Addis Ababa to discuss the situation in DR Congo in the light of the election that was held on December 30. Earlier in January, the country's National Electoral Commission (CENI) revealed the provisional results of the vote, saying that opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi had secured victory with over 38 percent of the ballots. However, the announcement of the final results is expected to follow the ruling by the country's constitutional court in the wake of the motion filed by another runner-up, Martin Fayulu, who claimed there was fraud during the election and called for the manual recount of the ballots. The ruling is expected later on Friday.

"The Heads of State and Government attending the meeting concluded that there were serious doubts on the conformity of the provisional results, as proclaimed by the National Independent Electoral Commission, with the votes cast.

Accordingly, the Heads of State and Government called for the suspension of the proclamation of the final results of the elections," the AU statement read.

The AU leaders also agreed to send a high-level delegation to DR Congo to communicate with all involved parties in order to find a way out of the post-electoral deadlock.

At the December 30 vote, Fayulu, who is a businessman, secured 34.83 percent of the votes. The ruling coalition's candidate, Emmanuel Shadary, garnered 23,84 percent of the ballots, according to the CENI figures.

Fayulu has claimed, citing information collected by his campaign team, that he had received over 60 percent of the votes. The presidential candidate also suggested that Tshisekedi had engaged in a power-sharing deal with incumbent president Joseph Kabila, who has been in power for 18 years, in order to become the next president.