South Africa on Tuesday urged the loser of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) presidential election to accept defeat, while giving the country’s first democratic poll in more than 40 years a broad seal of approval.
South Africa’s Deputy Defence Minister Mluleki George, who headed the biggest foreign-election observer team to the capital of the DRC, Kinshasa, urged ”the people of [DRC] to accept the outcome of the elections”, which he said were held in a ”reasonably peaceful environment”.
The call came as security forces of Jean-Pierre Bemba, the losing candidate in the presidential election, fired at police who were trying to break up a protest at the Supreme Court in Kinshasa against the results.
Troops of the United Nations mission in the DRC later fired warning shots into the air with machine-guns mounted on armoured vehicles outside the Supreme Court, where judges are studying Bemba’s challenge to the outcome of the vote.
No casualties were immediately reported.
The polls were won by incumbent President Joseph Kabila, who garnered 58,05% of the vote compared with Bemba’s 41,95% according to provisional final results released last week by the Independent Electoral Commission.
George said the ”electoral officers performed their tasks impartially and professionally”, and called upon ”the Congolese political leadership to work together as they begin to deal with huge challenges that face the country”.
International election observers have said the irregularities noted during the ballot are insufficient to overturn Kabila’s lead or invalidate the polls.
George said the South African poll observers hoped ”the two candidates and their supporters will honour the recent agreements … [to take] the country forward to sustainable peace, stability and economic development. By these agreements, the two candidates committed themselves to a peaceful electoral process and most importantly to accepting the outcome of the elections.”
He said the path-breaking elections had ”opened a new chapter” in the history of the mineral-rich country, pillaged for years by former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who was ousted in 1997 in a rebellion. A five-year regional war fought on DRC soil broke out the following year. — AFP
