Publications
Partners
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s opposition leader Martin Fayulu was a clear winner in the central African nation’s December 19 polls, according to data obtained by the Financial Times.
An FT analysis of two separate collections of data shows that Fayulu won the vote by at least 59.4% while president elect Felix Tshisekedi obtained 19% of the votes.
The analysis points to huge fraud in the first change of power since outgoing President Joseph Kabila took over from his late father in 2001.
According to the report, the election data is likely to embolden Kabila’s critics who have accused him of seeking to cling on to power through a deal with Tshisekedi.
The election data represents about 86% of total votes cast across the country and the remaining votes are likely not going to change the outcome.
A separate set of voting results collected manually by the Catholic Church's 40 000 observers, which represent 43% of the votes also shows that Fayulu won the election by at least 62.8%, says the report.
The results gathered across 28 733 polling points match almost perfectly the more extensive set of official results seen by the Financial Times.
An unnamed source close to Fayulu says the larger set of data, a spreadsheet containing more than 49 000 records, contains the true electronically-fed results.
Election chief Corneille Nangaa last week declared Tshisekedi the winner with 38.57% of the vote, just ahead of Fayulu with 34.8%, AFP reported.
The candidate backed by Kabila, hardline former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, came in a distant third with just 23.8%.
The results have, however, since been challenged in court by Fayulu who is alleging fraud, reported the Associated Press.
The constitutional court has seven days to consider the challenge.
Sign up to News24's top Africa news in your inbox: SUBSCRIBE TO THE HELLO AFRICA NEWSLETTER
