Back then, international leaders kept their distance after a transfer of power between Tshisekedi and his predecessor, former President Joseph Kabila, that was tainted by a dubious election now widely accepted to have been fraudulently awarded to Tshisekedi. The large margin of Tshisekedi’s victory this time around explains some of the shift in international sentiment between 2019 and 2024. On Dec. 31, Congo’s electoral commission declared him the winner of the nonetheless disputed first-round ballot with more than 70 percent of the vote. Tshisekedi—who, in fairness, was always considered the odds-on favorite to win a second term—defeated more than 20 candidates, several of whom later signed a declaration rejecting what they described as a “sham” election and calling for a rerun. Congo’s Constitutional Court instead upheld the result of the election, rejecting a plea by one of the opposition candidates to annul the vote and thus paving the way for Tshisekedi’s inauguration for a second term.

Source: The North Africa Journal February 08, 2024 15:32 UTC