African governments closed ranks over the disputed presidential contest in the Democratic Republic of Congo, declining to criticise the election process and backing away from calls for a recount despite evidence of a massive electoral fraud.
A Financial Times analysis of leaked polling data has shown that opposition leader Martin Fayulu was the clear winner of last month’s vote and that rival opposition candidate, Felix Tshisekedi, who was last week declared the victor, should have finished a distant second.
Congo’s Catholic Church, which ran the biggest election observation mission, also believes Mr Fayulu won the election with as much as 60 per cent of the vote and has called on the electoral commission to publish the true results.
Yet the Southern African Development Community, an inter-governmental group of 16 African countries including Congo, on Thursday congratulated the electoral commission on its organisation of the vote.
“We believe that the situation in the DRC has been managed and handled well and international constitutional processes are ongoing,” the SADC said following a meeting at the African Union. “Any electoral grievances must be addressed in line with the DRC constitution and relevant electoral laws.”
The African heads of state also appeared to criticise western governments and multilateral organisations that have been more critical of last month’s vote. “We call upon the international community to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the DRC [and] respect the ongoing internal legal and political processes for the finalisation of the electoral process,” it said.
Stephanie Wolters, a Congo expert at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, said the SADC was sending the message “that the international community is disrespecting the DRC’s sovereignty by questioning the electoral commission’s results”.
She added: “It is circling its wagons around a member state, and in doing so, protecting the government, but not the rights of the Congolese people.”
Mr Fayulu has challenged the official result at the constitutional court but few observers believe that the body, which was set up by outgoing president Joseph Kabila, will rule in his favour.
The view taken by the group of African leaders reduces the likelihood of any multilateral action against Congo if the constitutional court validates Mr Tshisekedi without proving his victory.
“The statement is disappointing in that it falls back to the ‘default setting’ of African leaders commending whatever other members of the club do, even when they know that what is true and right is otherwise,” said a senior western diplomat.
The leaked voting data were also published by French media groups Radio France Internationale and TV5, while the EU and US have urged for more transparency.
The US state department on Wednesday warned it would “hold accountable those who . . . undermine democratic processes” and called on the electoral commission to ensure that the final declared results reflect the will of the Congolese people. Any US action, however, would have less impact without wider African backing.
