Congo opposition threatens protest on inauguration day: summary

What we know

• Congo’s main opposition leaders in the December presidential polls have jointly called for a nationwide protest against President Felix Tshisekedi’s re-election.
• The protest scheduled for January 20 coincides with the inauguration of President Félix Tshisekedi for his second term.
• The electoral commission recently declared Tshisekedi the winner of last month's election with a landslide victory of 73% of the vote. However,
• President Tshisekedi's victory has been shrouded in controversy. Several opposition candidates, including Moïse Katumbi, who pooled 18% of votes, Martin Fayulu with 5%, and Anzuluni Bembe with 1%, have described the outcome of the elections as fraudulent.
• The Constitutional Court of the Democratic Republic of Congo ruled on Tuesday that irregularities in the December presidential election could not have influenced the results.
• The court justified its decision by pointing to the substantial gap between President Felix Tshisekedi and opposition candidate Moïse Katumbi, who secured approximately 18% of the votes.
• Following the recent presidential election, the Catholic bishops' conference in Congo raised grave concerns about the safety situation in the country. The conference of Catholic bishops declared that they had identified a significant amount of votes cast in parallel using voting equipment that were kept in private residences.

What they said

Moïse Katumbi told the media "We are having a protest on January 20 because we will not accept the results; there was fraud everywhere, and the elections must be annulled." Opposition candidate Martin Fayulu is quoted by Reuters saying "Our position remains the same: we did not witness credible elections... We reject the results announced without basis by the Constitutional Court." The President of the Constitutional Court, Dieudonne Kamuleta, also said in a ruling on January 16 that "even when taking reported irregularities and their influence on the ballot into account, the order of arrival is not disrupted."