Democratic Republic of Congo’s constitutional court on Wednesday rejected the petitions challenging the provisional results of December’s presidential election and officially confirmed Félix Tshisekedi as president of the country.

The court declared that Félix Tshisekedi secured 73.47 percent of the votes in the election while his main opponent, Moïse Katumbi, secured 18.08 percent. The figures given by the court slightly differed from the provisional results, according to which Tshisekedi won 73.34 percent votes.

The court began its hearing on Monday and after two days gave its ruling; it rejected the petitions as it “lacked merit”. The petitions were separately filed by presidential candidate Theodore Ngoy and a citizen.

Théodore Ngoy, who finished last in the presidential race with 0.02 percent of the vote, was the only opposition candidate who filed a petition against the results hours before the deadline to do so. Ngoy, a lawyer and pastor, who also ran in the 2018 presidential race and lost, demanded an annulment of the election. The election was termed a “sham” by some opposition candidates who boycotted the results and demanded a re-run.

Martin Fayulu contested this year’s poll and ultimately ended third with approximately five percent of the votes. The remaining twenty candidates, including Nobel Peace Prize awardee Denis Mukwege who worked for the female victims of wartime sexual violence in Eastern Congo, polled around one percent or less. While some opposing candidates, including Moïse Katumbi, rejected the electoral outcome, most did not file petitions, alleging that the court was pro-government.

DRC held its presidential election on December 20, 2023. However, the election was marred by widespread violence, and technical and logistical irregularities. As a result, voting was extended by a day to account for the shortcomings. The Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), responsible for supervising the general elections, reported that more than 18 million Congolese citizens cast ballots out of the total 44 million registered voters in the 26 provincial assemblies. Following the announcement of the provisional results, candidates were provided with a two-day window to file claims against the results, and the constitutional court had seven days to examine any appeals. The window for the claims expired on the evening of January 3.

Tshisekedi, 60, came to power in January 2019 after a disputed election and won his second term as president in a landslide victory. The 2018 election marked a historic moment as it constituted the first democratic transfer of power in the country since 1960, breaking a pattern of previous instances where power was seized through violence.

The president is scheduled to be sworn in again on January 20.