CONGO opposition candidate Martin Fayulu has announced he will appeal his country’s presidential election results.
Many cheered as Felix Tshisekedi was named the winner of Thursday’s election, pictured, but both the influential Catholic Church and Fayulu’s coalition party have questioned the result.
Fayulu’s coalition has claimed the candidate received 61% of the vote, based on findings from the church’s 40,000 election observers.
With a heavy police presence nearby, he addressed hundreds of supporters who gathered in the capital Kinshasa to denounce what they called “the people’s stolen victory”.
He accused outgoing President Joseph Kabila of making a backroom deal with the surprise declared winner.
Fayulu urged Congo’s electoral commission to publish detailed results and said he would file his court challenge on Saturday morning.
“Those who have been silly enough to publish false results, we will challenge them,” he said.
Meanwhile, Poland’s Internal Security Agency charged a Chinese manager at tech giant Huawei, and one of its own former officers, with espionage against the country, state TV reported.
The development comes as a US dispute with China over a ban on Huawei is spilling over to Europe, where some countries are also starting to shun its network systems over data security concerns.
Some governments and telecom companies are following the US lead in questioning whether using Huawei for vital infrastructure for mobile networks could leave them exposed to snooping by the Chinese government.
Maciej Wasik, deputy head of Poland’s special service, said the investigation had been under way for a long time and was planned with care.
He said: “Both carried out espionage activities against Poland.”
State broadcaster TVP said the men have not pleaded guilty and are refusing to give evidence.
Huawei issued a statement from its Chinese headquarters, claiming it was aware of the situation and looking into it.
And in Chechnya, several people have been detained on suspicion of being gay in a throwback to an earlier crackdown, activists said.
The reports come a year and a half after more than 100 gay men in the Russian republic were arrested and tortured, and some of them killed, according to activists.
Prominent activist Igor Kochetkov, pictured, right, said gay rights supporters have seen a spike in detentions since December.
He added activists would release a report on Monday.
Chechen and Russian authorities have denied the killings and torture took place.
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