DRC: Presidential Runner Up Fayulu Asks Court to Cancel Result.

Martin Fayulu, who came second in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s presidential election last month, has appealed to the country’s Constitutional Court to cancel the provisional result.

“The request seeks the annulment of the result declaring Felix Tshisekedi president,” his lawyer Feli Ekombe told reporters outside the court on Saturday.

Fayulu’s camp has accused the declared winner, opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi, of making a secret deal with outgoing President Joseph Kabila.

“You can’t manufacture results behind closed doors,” Fayulu said in front of a crowd of his supporters.

“I am hoping that the constitutional court will call the electoral commission to recount the ballot papers. “They are false, fabricated, nothing to do with the truth. The truth has to come from the recount of the ballot paper.

Tshisekedi’s victory shocked pollsters and was immediately disputed by the opposition and Western powers.

The influential Catholic Church also rejected the official result, based on tallies by its 40,000-strong observer team.

“The results as published do not match the data collected by our own observation mission,” Marcel Utembi, the head of the country’s National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) said.

“We have a recommendation: To publish as quickly as possible all the records and minutes from the counties and the polling stations to allow candidates to compare”.

Al-Jazeera