Denis Kadima, the director of the national election commission, declared Tshisekedi’s win on Sunday in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He stated that Tshisekedi had won with 73.34 percent of the vote.
Extensive logistical issues plagued the highly contested December 20 election, forcing an extension to a second day in certain regions of the nation.
The opposition said that the issues were set up so that Tshisekedi could have the results skewed in his favour.
Following the results’ announcement, a number of opponents staged a protest in the streets earlier.
“We categorically reject the sham elections… and its results,” the main opposition candidates said in a joint statement.
They also insisted on holding new elections on a date that would be agreed upon by all parties, using a new electoral body.
But according to Kadima, the election results showed the people’s will.
On January 20, Tshisekedi is scheduled to take office for a second term.
*What you should know about Felix Tshisekedi*
According to Voice of America, Felix was born on the 13th of June 1963. He is a Congolese politician who has been the President of the Democratic Repubic of Congo since January 24, 2019.
He is the leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), the DRC’s oldest and largest party, succeeding his late father Etienne Tshiesekedi.
Tshisekedi lived and worked in Brussels, Belgium, in 1985. There, he got involved with the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDSP), the biggest political party in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, by joining its Belgium wing.
He was appointed the UDSP National Secretary for External Relations after arriving back home. Tshisekedi’s deep ties to the party helped him advance to the position of vice secretary-general in 2016 and chief executive of the UDSP in 2018.
Félix married Denise Nyakéru Tshisekedi in 1995. Denise is from the eastern DRC city of Bukavu. He wed Marthe Kasalu Jibikila following their divorce in 2001, and the two have two sons, Félix and Christian Tshisekedi.
Following the passing of his father, Étienne Tshisekedi, in 2018, Félix Tshisekedi received a presidential nomination from the UDSP.
On January 24, 2019, he was inaugurated in as president after garnering the majority of the votes in the succeeding election. Tshisekedi took office as the country’s fifth president and its first to do so amicably.
In keeping with a pledge he had made during his presidential campaign, Tshisekedi signed an order in 2021 to release over 700 political prisoners who had been imprisoned by his predecessor, DRC President Joseph Kabila Kabange.
He also urged all political exiles from DRC to go back home. Amnesty International commended Tshisekedi for restoring human rights and dignity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) due to his care for the political and civil rights of the country’s population, a stance uncommon among African political figures.
