FILE PHOTO: Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) officials and polling agents gather to count and tally casted ballot papers at a polling centre following the Presidential election in Goma, North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo December 20, 2023. REUTERS/Arlette Bashizi/File Photo
KINSHASA (Reuters) -Democratic Republic of Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi has been re-elected for a second term after getting more than 73% of the vote in this month's presidential election, the country's election commission said on Sunday.
Announcing the results on Sunday in the capital Kinshasa, Denis Kadima, the head Congo's national election commission known as the CENI, said Tshisekedi was elected with 73.34% of the vote having obtained over 13 million votes out of over 18 million valid votes.
Turnout in the disputed election was at over 43%, Kadima said.
Earlier on Sunday a group of Congo's main opposition presidential candidates asked supporters to take to the streets to protest after the release of the provisional results.
"We categorically reject the sham elections... and its results," the main opposition candidates said in a joint declaration. They demanded fresh elections be held with a new electoral body on a date to be agreed by all.
"We call on our people to take to the streets en masse after the proclamation of the electoral fraud," they said.
The government of Congo had previously rejected calls for a rerun of the elections.
(Reporting by Ange Kasongo and Sonia Rolley; Writing by Alessandra Prentice and Bate Felix; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Alexander Winning)
