The Southern African Development Community (SADC) yesterday rowed back on calls earlier this week for a recount in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s disputed presidential election.
Election officials deny the results were rigged. The original statement on Sunday by SADC, which includes Kinshasa allies like South Africa and Angola, and another regional body the following day had piled pressure on Congo to address the allegations.
But apparently wary that a recount could heighten tensions, South Africa and Zambia backtracked within 24 hours of Sunday’s statement and said they would not push for one.
The entire 16-member bloc yesterday echoed that position following an emergency meeting in Addis Ababa attended by heads of state including South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa and Angola’s Joao Lourenco.
“We call upon the international community to respect…the ongoing internal legal and political processes for the finalisation of the electoral process,” SADC said in a statement. It made no mention of an earlier appeal for a power-sharing government.
The African Union was also holding a meeting yesterday in Addis, which AU chairperson and Rwandan President Paul Kagame said was aimed at preventing “the people outside of our continent to meddle…trying to find solutions for us”.
Opposition leader and election runner-up Martin Fayulu is demanding that Congo’s highest court order a recount of the Dec. 30 vote, which was meant to lead to the country’s first democratic transfer of power in 59 years of independence.
The Constitutional Court is due to rule by today on Fayulu’s complaint, but Fayulu has said he is not confident he will win before the nine-judge court, which he considers friendly to President Joseph Kabila.
Fayulu claims he won by a landslide and that the victory of another opposition figure, Felix Tshisekedi, was engineered by the authorities.
The dispute risks further destabilizing the volatile Central African country, where previous elections have been followed by violence.
Fayulu, a former Exxon Mobil manager, says Tshisekedi, who is the president of Congo’s largest opposition party, struck a deal with outgoing Kabila to be declared winner. Tshisekedi’s and Kabila’s camps deny that.