Felix Tshisekedi has been elected president of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He won 38.57% of the vote of December 30th poll, according to the provisional results published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday, January 10. The participation rate was 47.56%. 18,280,820 valid votes were cast.

Martin Fayulu was the runner-up with 6,366,732 votes (35.2%). Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary was third with 4,357,359 votes (23.8%).

According to the amended INEC calendar, the final results of the election will be proclaimed by the Constitutional Court on January 15. The new president is scheduled to take the oath of office on January 18.

But the late publication of the results, three days later than originally scheduled, may also change the dates of the publication of the final results and the oath.

Twenty-one candidates were running for the race for the highest office. Vital Kamerhe had withdrawn in favor of Felix Tshisekedi, with whom he formed the Cape for Change (CACH) coalition. Freddy Matungulu, Sylvain Masheke and Jean-Philibert Mabaya joined Martin Fayulu of the Lamuka coalition.

But these late rallies were not taken into account by the INEC, the electoral law does not provide for withdrawals of applications at the discretion of political alliances after the publication of the final lists of candidates.

Of the remaining seventeen candidates, three stood out during the campaign: Emmanuel Ramazani of the FCC, the Common Front for Congo – a vast platform of the parties supporting Joseph Kabila, Felix Tshisekedi of Cape for Change (CACH) and Martin Fayulu of the Lamuka coalition.