African Union Urges DR Congo to Delay Final Election Results
BBC World Service
The African Union (AU) has called on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) to postpone the release of its presidential election results.
The pan-African organisation, which aims to promote unity and democracy, says it has "serious doubts" about provisional results released last week.
Opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi was declared the winner but another opponent of the current administration, Martin Fayulu, insists he won.
Final results are due on Friday.
A number of AU heads of state and government met in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Thursday and released a statement about the disputed 30 December election.
"There were serious doubts on the conformity of the provisional results, as proclaimed by the National Independent Electoral Commission, with the votes cast," it read.
"Accordingly, the [AU] called for the suspension of the proclamation of the final results of the elections," it added.
Felix Tshisekedi leads DR Congo's largest opposition party, founded by his late father in 1982
Mr Fayulu alleges that provisional winner Mr Tshisekedi made a deal with the outgoing President Joseph Kabila.
Mr Kabila has been in office for 18 years and the result, if confirmed, would create the first orderly transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.
The electoral commission said Mr Tshisekedi had received 38.5% of the vote, compared to 34.7% for Mr Fayulu. Ruling coalition candidate Emmanuel Shadary took 23.8%.
Mr Fayulu filed an appeal in the Constitutional Court on Saturday demanding a manual recount of votes.
But the court has never overturned results before, and some think most of its judges are close to the ruling party.
The declaration of Mr Tshisekedi as winner has also been disputed by the influential Catholic Church which says it deployed 40,000 election monitors across the country.
International experts based in the US, and the French and German governments, have also raised doubts.
The African Union (AU) has called on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) to postpone the release of its presidential election results.
The pan-African organisation, which aims to promote unity and democracy, says it has "serious doubts" about provisional results released last week.
Opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi was declared the winner but another opponent of the current administration, Martin Fayulu, insists he won.
Final results are due on Friday.
A number of AU heads of state and government met in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Thursday and released a statement about the disputed 30 December election.
"There were serious doubts on the conformity of the provisional results, as proclaimed by the National Independent Electoral Commission, with the votes cast," it read.
"Accordingly, the [AU] called for the suspension of the proclamation of the final results of the elections," it added.
Felix Tshisekedi leads DR Congo's largest opposition party, founded by his late father in 1982
Mr Fayulu alleges that provisional winner Mr Tshisekedi made a deal with the outgoing President Joseph Kabila.
Mr Kabila has been in office for 18 years and the result, if confirmed, would create the first orderly transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.
The electoral commission said Mr Tshisekedi had received 38.5% of the vote, compared to 34.7% for Mr Fayulu. Ruling coalition candidate Emmanuel Shadary took 23.8%.
Mr Fayulu filed an appeal in the Constitutional Court on Saturday demanding a manual recount of votes.
But the court has never overturned results before, and some think most of its judges are close to the ruling party.
The declaration of Mr Tshisekedi as winner has also been disputed by the influential Catholic Church which says it deployed 40,000 election monitors across the country.
International experts based in the US, and the French and German governments, have also raised doubts.
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