Kinshasa — The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) should recount the votes of its contested presidential election that the runner-up says was rigged, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) said on Sunday. The December 30 poll was supposed to mark DRC’sfirst uncontested democratic transfer of power in 59 years of restive independence and the beginning of a new era following 18 years of chaotic rule by President Joseph Kabila. Runner-up Martin Fayulu claims that he in fact won by a landslide and that the official winner, opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi, struck a deal with Kabila to be declared victor. Tshisekedi and Kabila deny this.
The Catholic Church in the DRC has said that tallies compiled by its 40,000-strong monitoring team show a different winner to those announced by the electoral commission, without saying who. Isolated post-election violence across the massive, mineral-rich country of 80-million people has many fearing a return to the kind of civil-war u...
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