Congo's Tshisekedi fights poll fraud accusations with 'spirit of openness'
By Ange Kasongo
KINSHASA (Reuters) — When Democratic Republic of Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi was declared the winner of another disputed election on Sunday, he pledged be a leader for all its 100 million people.
However, accusations by opposition leaders of electoral fraud and political repression will likely cloud his second term as it did the first. His main rivals rejected Sunday's outcome before it was announced and called for a rerun.
Speaking to supporters at his campaign headquarters in the capital, Kinshasa, Tshisekedi appealed for unity.
«It is with a spirit of openness that I'll govern during this second term,» Tshisekedi told a jubilant crowd, adding that he would focus on creating jobs, security and a more diversified and competitive economy.
The result sets the stage for a tense political standoff with the potential for the kind of violence that followed contested polls in 2018, 2011 and 2006.
There could also be international ramifications. Congo is the world's top supplier of cobalt, used in making batteries for electric vehicles and cell phones, and its third-biggest copper producer.
Tshisekedi, 60, son of longtime opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, inherited his father's substantial support base on his death in 2017 after years in the shadows.
However, vote tallies reviewed by Reuters at the time from Congo's Roman Catholic Church, which had a 40,000-strong team of observers, showed second-placed opposition candidate Martin Fayulu as the victor in 2018.
Fayulu suspected that Tshisekedi had struck a deal with outgoing president Joseph Kabila, who was prevented from running by term limits. Fayulu denounced the result as a «constitutional coup d'etat», which Tshisekedi and Kabila both
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