DR CONGO: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS WITHOUT KABILA, BUT SUITABLE FOR HIM
Omar Tchilombo
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is having elections on December this year, to elect a new President. Yes, this time, President Joseph Kabila is keeping his promise of not running for a third mandate, after renouncing it last August.
However, things don't seem very promising, because the influence of Kabila is still too great and many of the opposition candidates are already out of the race.
Although we have opposition figures like Felix Tshisekedi and Vital Kamerhe, the official list released, confirmed the exclusion of former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba and regional baron Moise Katumbi a move that raised howls of protest from their powerful blocs of supporters.
Who are these main political figures?
Felix Tshisekedi - leader of the "Rassemblement coalition", he was appointed as the leader of the country's largest opposition coalition in March, succeeding his father, veteran politician Étienne, who died the previous month.
In 2008, he was appointed national secretary, in charge of foreign affairs at the Union for Democracy and Social Progress, a party led by his father. In October 2016 he was appointed Deputy Secretary General of the same party.
Vital Kamerhe - politician and leader of the Union for the Congolese Nation. He was President of the National Assembly of the DRC (2006-2009). After resigning he went to opposition, founded a new party and was candidate in the 2011 election. He has a degree in Economics.
Under Laurent Kabila he was among other things Director of the Service National, Finance Councelor at the Ministère de la Défense Nationale et Anciens Combattants and deputy commissioner in charge of MONUC (United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo) affairs. He's nicknamed the "Peacemaker".
He had an important role in the peace process of the Great Lakes region and prepared the Joseph Kabila's 2006 election campaign.
In 2009 he questioned Kabila over the Umoja Wetu operations that allowed several thousand Rwandan troops to deploy into the Congo without informing the Parliament. He also condemned the joint military operations (Congo-Rwanda) in the Kivu region, because the National Assembly and the Senate didn't get any information.
In 2011 he was candidate to the presidential election with his own party.
Moise Katumbi - Politician and businessman living in Europe since he was convicted in absentia of crime in the DRC. He was Governor of the Katanga province (2007-2015) and member of the Kabila's party. He is considered by many the second most powerful man of the country after Kabila. One of the richest men, he is also half-brother of Raphael Katoto (businessman and retired politician).
Since 1997, he has been the President of the football team TP Mazembe, based in Lubumbashi, and has been playing an important role in several football committees.
His governance of Katanga's province has brought a great economic revival to the region.
In June 2016 he was convicted in absentia of selling a house that allegedly wasn't his.
He is against Katanga secession from Congo and is prevented from entering the country and run for the presidential elections.
Jean-Pierre Bemba - a wealthy former businessman turned warlord and vice president of DRC in the transitional government (2003-2006), spent more than a decade in prison after being sentenced at first instance in 2016 to 18 years in prison, the heaviest sentence ever imposed by the International Criminal Court, for the murders, rapes and looting committed in the Central African Republic by his militia between October 2002 and March 2003.
The court concluded that Bemba, who was not present in the Central African Republic at the time, had not been proven to have remotely controlled the actions of his militia, the Congo Liberation Movement (CLM).
With only two prominent figures running for presidency, Kabila's life is more facilitated to maintain influence. Thus, he has sent his former interior minister, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, into the race. Shadary is clearly Joseph Kabila's preferred candidate, because he is loyal to the presidential family, and if he takes office, there will be a Kabila-friendly course.
Furthermore, one can observe a fragmented opposition; the big challenge is to unite it behind a credible candidate after the loss of the people-pulling power of Bemba and Katumbi.