Congolese opposition leader Martin Fayulu has written to the African Union asking leaders not to abandon the Democratic Republic of Congo in an election year that President Felix Tshisekedi has set up a rigging machine to be crookedly announced winner again.
Fayulu says failure by the African Union leaders to act on the crisis in the DRC promoted President Felix Tshisekedi’s illegitimacy which is eating away the country.
In his letter addressed to the 36th AU Summit in Addis Ababa, Fayulu says he found that all the AU has not taken any initiative to try to come to the bedside of the DRC and help it out of the impasse in which it finds itself.
“History will remember that the Democratic Republic of Congo was almost abandoned by the continental organization, when it needed it most. In the meantime, the country has become further mired in political, security, economic and social complications which terribly threaten the stability of the region and compromise any prospect of development for the benefit of our populations,” he said.
In addition, the President of ECiDé accused the President of the Republic, Félix Tshisekedi, “who was not elected in 2018 by the Congolese people”, of setting up a rigging mechanism for the next elections, in particular by appointing the constitutional judges in violation of the constitution, by appointing the members of the CENI in a “cavalier” way.
Added to this, according to Martin Fayulu, is the granting of an electoral law to President Tshisekedi’s advantage and by proclaiming a state of siege in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri.
He also accused the Head of State of exacerbating tribalism and making the DRC join the Community of East African States (EAC) against the will of the Congolese people.
“In doing so, he has clearly thrown our country into the arms of those forces which are truly destroying our aspirations for peace and security,” he said.
Faced with the gravity of the situation in the East, Fayulu has asked the African Union (AU) to strongly condemn the aggression of the DRC by Rwanda and to demand the unconditional withdrawal of its troops from the territories.
“I also ask the continental organization to work actively to bring all the stakeholders together around a table to be able to reach a consensus around the real challenges facing the DRC. It is only then that we will be able to find viable solutions and thus create the conditions for transparent, impartial and peaceful elections, in accordance with the Constitution of the DRC and regional standards,” he said.
Fayulu is widely considered to have won the 2018 election as shown in the results distributed by Parallel Voter’s observers that include the respected Catholic Observers.
