The EU urges the Congo to "work in accordance with the electoral law"

The EU has urged the Congolese national electoral commission to "work in accordance with the electoral law" and to publish the votes of individual local collection centers.

Maja Kocijancic, a spokesperson for the EU, said the blockade continued to "closely monitor the situation with our partners, especially African partners".

He stressed that any challenge to the election results should be "pursued peacefully, through the planned paths and through political dialogue between all the parties involved".

"At this crucial moment for the democratic transition for the country, it is essential that all political actors refrain from violence," said Kocijancic.

The Congolese government last month expelled the EU's ambassador in the country after the blockade extended its sanctions to President Joseph Kabila's allies. The EU condemned the decision as "arbitrary and" counterproductive ".

Comments from the EU arrive while the FT reveals that Martin Fayulu was the clear winner of the Democratic Republic of Congo presidential elections last month, according to an analysis of two separate collections of voting data.

The findings contradict the statements of the authorities that rival rival Felix Tshisekedi had won the historic vote and indicate a "huge fraud in the first change of power since Joseph Kabila took over the presidency of the mineral-rich Central African nation nearly 18 years does.

The revelations will probably encourage critics of Kabila who suspect that the Congolese leader is trying to hold on to power through an agreement with Mr. Tshisekedi. According to a collection of electoral data seen by the FT and representing 86% of the total votes cast throughout the country, Mr. Fayulu obtained 59.4% of the votes. Opponent opposition candidate Tshisekedi, who was declared the winner of the surprise last week, concluded second with 19 percent, according to this set of data.

An FT analysis of a separate set of voting results collected manually by the 40,000 observers of the Catholic Church and representing 43% of the turnout shows that Mr. Fayulu obtained 62.8% of this vote. The results collected in 28,733 electoral points correspond almost perfectly to the broader set of official results seen by the FT.