Democratic Republic of the Congo general election, 2018

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DR Congo presidential election, 2018
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President before election

Joseph Kabila
PPRD

Elected President

TBD

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General elections are scheduled to be held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 23 December 2018, to determine a successor to incumbent President Joseph Kabila. [1] They were originally scheduled for 27 November 2016, but were delayed with a broken promise to hold them by the end of 2017. [2] According to the constitution, the second and final term of President Kabila expired on 20 December 2016. [3]

Democratic Republic of the Congo Country in Central Africa

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, also known as DR Congo, the DRC, DROC, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo, is a country located in Central Africa. It is sometimes anachronistically referred to by its former name of Zaire, which was its official name between 1971 and 1997. It is, by area, the largest country in Sub-Saharan Africa, the second-largest in all of Africa, and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of over 78 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populated officially Francophone country, the fourth-most-populated country in Africa, and the 16th-most-populated country in the world.

President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo head of state of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is the head of state of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Joseph Kabila President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Joseph Kabila Kabange is a Congolese politician who served as President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between January 2001 and January 2019. He took office ten days after the assassination of his father, President Laurent-Désiré Kabila. He was elected as President in 2006 and re-elected in 2011 for a second term. Since stepping down after the 2018 election, Kabila, as a former president, will be a senator for life, according to the Constitution of the DRC.

Contents

Incumbent President Kabila is constitutionally unable to participate and a cabinet minister has said he will not run. [4] He and his party, the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy, support the candidacy of Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, the former Interior Minister. [5]

Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary is a politician in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who was a presidential candidate in the December 2018 presidential elections in the country. He was selected following consultations within the ruling People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) political party and the Common Front for Congo (FCC), political coalition. Shadary is the permanent secretary of the PPRD, and has previously served as the country's Interior Minister.

In opposition to Shadary's candidacy, seven opposition leaders, including Jean-Pierre Bemba and Moïse Katumbi, nominated Martin Fayulu as their candidate for president. [6]

Jean-Pierre Bemba Democratic Republic of the Congo politician

Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo is a politician in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was one of four vice-presidents in the transitional government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 17 July 2003 to December 2006. Bemba also leads the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC), a rebel group turned political party. He received the second-highest number of votes in the 2006 presidential election. In January 2007 he was elected to the Senate.

Moïse Katumbi Democratic Republic of the Congo politician

Moïse Katumbi Chapwe is a Congolese politician and businessman. He was the Governor of the Katanga Province, located in the southern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from 2007 to September 2015. He was a member of the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) until September 2015. He has been described by The Economist as "probably the second most powerful man in the Democratic Republic of Congo after the president, Joseph Kabila". Jeune Afrique named him "African of the Year" in 2015.

Martin Fayulu Congolese politician

Martin Madidi Fayulu is a businessman and lawmaker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is the leader of the Engagement for Citizenship and Development party. On 11 November 2018, he was chosen by seven opposition leaders to be their joint presidential candidate in the 2018 Democratic Republic of the Congo general election. However, within 24 hours, Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, the eventual winner of the 2018 presidential election and Vital Kamerhe, the other oppositional candiate, rescinded their endorsement of his candidacy and formed their own pact with Tshisekedi as candidate.

Background

On 29 September 2016, the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) announced that the elections would not be held until early 2018. According to CENI's vice president, the commission "hasn’t called elections in 2016 because the number of voters isn’t known." [7] The announcement came ten days after deadly protests against Kabila in Kinshasa saw 17 people killed. The opposition alleged that Kabila intentionally delayed the elections to remain in power. [3]

Independent National Electoral Commission (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

The Independent National Electoral Commission is the body that runs elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Kinshasa Capital in Democratic Republic of the Congo

Kinshasa is the capital and the largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is situated alongside the Congo River.

An agreement reached with the opposition in December 2016 allowed Kabila to stay in office with a requirement to hold elections by the end of 2017. However, on 7 July 2017, CENI President Corneille Nangaa said it would not be possible to organize presidential elections by the end of the year. [8] Opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi condemned the announcement on Twitter, saying Nangaa had "declared war on the Congolese people." [9]

Twitter micro-blogging Internet service

Twitter is an American online news and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as "tweets". Tweets were originally restricted to 140 characters, but on November 7, 2017, this limit was doubled for all languages except Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Registered users can post, like, and retweet tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. Users access Twitter through its website interface, through Short Message Service (SMS) or its mobile-device application software ("app"). Twitter, Inc. is based in San Francisco, California, and has more than 25 offices around the world.

In November 2017 CENI announced that elections will be held in December 2018, [10] after previously claiming earlier that month that elections could not be held until April 2019 due to the difficulties of registering voters in a country with underdeveloped infrastructure. [11] Prime Minister Bruno Tshibala confirmed in March 2018 that the election will occur in December. [12]

Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is Congo's head of government.

Bruno Tshibala Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Bruno Tshibala Nzenze is a Congolese politician has served as Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since May 2017.

According to the UN a total of 47 people had been killed at protests against President Kabila during this period, which occurred throughout 2017 and into 2018. [13] [14]

According to Human Rights Watch, government security forces used live rounds to disperse crowds of opposition supporters throughout August 2018, stating that the total death toll by then since 2015 was 300 people. HRW also documented attempts by the Congolese government to persecute members of the opposition, such as banning Moïse Katumbi from entering the country and forcefully dispersing a rally in support of Jean Pierre Bemba. [15]

Electoral system

According to Article 71 of the DRC Constitution, the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is elected by plurality vote in one round. Article 72 specifies that the requirements to stand as a candidate for the presidency are being a Congolese citizen and at least thirty years old. [16] [17]

Article 101 of the Constitution provides the basis for electing a National Assembly. [16] The 500 members of the National Assembly are elected by two methods; 60 are elected from single-member constituencies using first-past-the-post voting, and 440 are elected from 109 multi-member constituencies by open list proportional representation, with seats allocated using the largest remainder method to all lists gathering more than 1 % of the valid votes. [18]

Potential candidates

On 25 May 2018, businessman and former governor of Katanga Province Moïse Katumbi discussed with fellow opposition presidential candidate Félix Tshisekedi, son of the late opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, at the Atlantic Council about fielding a single opposition candidate. [19] In early September 2018, he again called on the opposition to unite behind a single candidate. [20]

As of August 2018, the country's Independent National Electoral Commission is reviewing candidates. [5] A preliminary list of candidates, including 25 names, was published on August 10, 2018. Another list will be published on August 24, and the final one will be published on September 19. [21]

On September 3, the Constitutional Court of the DRC upheld the national election commission's decision to ban six potential candidates from taking part in the election, including opposition leader Jean Pierre Bemba. [23] [24]

Disqualified candidates

Opinion polls

Opinion polling is rare in the Democratic Republic of the Congo due to poor roads and lack of electricity. [28] Nevertheless, the Congo Research Group (CRG) released a poll in October 2016 of 7,545 respondents in the country's 26 provinces. The poll found that 33% would vote for Katumbi, 18% for Etienne Tshisekedi, and 7.8% for Kabila.

A May 2017 poll of 7,500 respondents carried out by CRG/BERCI found that 38% would vote for Katumbi, 10% for Kabila, 5% for Félix Tshisekedi, Vital Kamerhe and Jean-Pierre Bemba, 24% for other candidates, and 13% would not vote. [29]

A March 2018 poll carried out by the CRG showed Katumbi obtaining 26%, Tshisekedi with 14%, Adolphe Muzito and Kamerhe tied at 9%, Kabila with 7%, and Augustin Mataya Ponyo and Aubin Minaku with 3% each. [30]

A June 2018 Top Congo FM poll amongst opposition supporters showed Katumbi winning 54% of the opposition's vote, with Kamerhe at 34%, Bemba at 7%, and Tshisekedi at 5%. [31]

Related Research Articles

The region that is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo was first settled about 80,000 years ago. The Kingdom of Congo remained present in the region between the 14th and the early 19th centuries. Belgian colonization began when King Leopold II founded the Congo Free State, a corporate state run solely by King Leopold. Reports of widespread murder and torture in the rubber plantations led the Belgian government to seize the Congo from Leopold II and establish the Belgian Congo. Under Belgian rule numerous Christian organizations attempted to Westernize the Congolese people.

Léon Kengo wa Dondo Democratic Republic of the Congo politician

Léon Kengo wa Dondo is a Congolese politician who served as the "first state commissioner" several times under Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaïre. He was one of the most powerful figures in the regime and was a strong advocate of economic globalization and free-market economics. Since 2007, he has been President of the Senate of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Direct elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo occur for the Presidency, National Assembly, and provincial assemblies. The Senate, the upper house of the legislature, is elected indirectly by members of the provincial assemblies.

Étienne Tshisekedi Democratic Republic of Congo Prime Minister

Étienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba was a Congolese politician and the leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), the main opposing political party in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). A long-time opposition leader, he served as Prime Minister of the country on three brief occasions: in 1991, 1992–1993, and 1997.

The Movement for the Liberation of the Congo is a political party in Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was a rebel group operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo that fought the government throughout the Second Congo War. It subsequently took part in the transitional government and is one of the main opposition parties.

2006 Democratic Republic of the Congo general election

General elections were held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on July 30, 2006, the first multiparty elections in the country in 41 years. Voters went to the polls to elect both a new President of the Republic and a new National Assembly, the lower-house of the Parliament.

Oscar Kashala Democratic Republic of the Congo politician

Dr. Oscar Kashala Lukumuena is a politician in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and was a candidate in the 2006 presidential election.

Vital Kamerhe leader of the UNC party

Vital Kamerhe is a Congolese politician and leader of the Union for the Congolese Nation, an opposition political party. He was President of the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2006 to 2009. After resigning from that office, he went into opposition and founded the UNC. Kamerhe was a candidate in the 2011 presidential election.

2011 Democratic Republic of the Congo general election election

Presidential and parliamentary elections were held in Democratic Republic of the Congo on 28 November 2011; a facultative run-off on 26 February 2012 was shelved with a change in election laws.

Médard Mulangala Lwakabwanga is a politician from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is President of the Union for a Republican Majority and a leader of the Union Sacree pour l’Alternance, an umbrella grouping of opposition parliamentary parties and community groups that forms the third-largest political structure within the opposition and Rapporteur of the National Assembly’s Committee on Economics and Finance, making him the opposition’s lead spokesman on budgetary, economic and investment policy in the Republic.

2019 Democratic Republic of the Congo Senate election

Elections were held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for 108 seats of the country's Senate on 14 March 2019. Former DRC President Joseph Kabila, who stepped down from office in January 2019 following the inauguration of the recently elected Félix Tshisekedi, has also joined the upper house of the legislature as a senator for life, for a total of 109 seats.

Samy Badibanga Ntita is a Congolese politician who was Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from November 2016 to May 2017.

December 2016 Congolese protests

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Félix Tshisekedi Congolese politician

Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo is a Congolese politician who has been the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 24 January 2019. He is the leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), the oldest and largest party of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is also the son of late Étienne Tshisekedi, a three-time Prime Minister of Zaire and opposition leader. Tshisekedi was the UDPS party's candidate for president in the December 2018 general election, which he won, despite accusations of irregularities from European and Catholic Church election monitoring organizations. His victory was upheld by the Constitutional Court of the DRC after another opposition politician, Martin Fayulu, challenged the result. Recently, he has named his coalition partner and political heavyweight, Vital Kamerhe, as his Chief of Cabinet.

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Nicolas Kazadi Nicolas Kazadi is a Congolese politician and economist, who is currently Ambassador-at-large for President Tshisekedi.

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References

  1. ↑ Uncertainty as DRC sets election date to replace Kabila Al Jazeera, 9 November 2017
  2. ↑ DR Congo sets elections for December 2018 African Medias, 5 November 2017
  3. 1 2 DR Congo election: 17 dead in anti-Kabila protests BBC News, 29 September 2016
  4. ↑ DRC crisis: aide says Kabila not standing in elections The Guardian , 7 February 2018
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Joseph Kabila says he will not run again in Congo". The Economist . 8 August 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  6. ↑ "DR Congo opposition picks joint presidential candidate". Yahoo News. AFP. 11 November 2018. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
  7. ↑ Wilson, Thomas; Mbatha, Amogelgang (29 September 2016). "Congo Election Body Proposes Two-Year Wait for Presidential Vote". Bloomberg BusinessWeek . Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  8. ↑ Congo Election Commission: Vote Can't Be Held by End of Year The New York Times, 8 July 2017
  9. ↑ Felix A. Tshisekedi Twitter
  10. ↑ Central Intelligence Agency (17 October 2018). "Congo, Democratic Republic of the". CIA World Factbook. Langley, Virginia: Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 24 October 2018. DRC Government has delayed national elections, originally slated for November 2016, to December 2018.
  11. ↑ Patient Ligodi, Amedee Mwarabu (5 November 2017). Congo sets presidential election for December 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  12. ↑ Congo presidential election on course for December, says prime minister. Standardmedia.ke. Published 8 March 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  13. ↑ DR Congo Faces Call For Standstill Over Protest Deaths. Channels Television. Published 9 March 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  14. ↑ Year of anti-Kabila protests in DR Congo leaves 47 dead: UN. Yahoo News. Published 19 March 2018. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  15. ↑ DR Congo: Opposition Under Assault. Published 28 August 2018. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  16. 1 2 Constitution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (PDF), 2005. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  17. ↑ Democratic Republic of the Congo IFES
  18. ↑ Electoral system IPU
  19. ↑ Sen, Ashish Kumar. "Congolese Opposition Leaders Join Forces" . Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  20. ↑ Bemba disqualification expected: DRC opposition must unite – Katumbi. Africa News. 4 September 2018.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 25 line up for DR Congo presidency. 12 August 2018.
  22. ↑ "DR Congo opposition picks joint presidential candidate". Yahoo News. AFP. 11 November 2018. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
  23. ↑ DR Congo's top court confirms Bemba's exclusion from presidential election. Africa News. 3 September 2018.
  24. 1 2 3 4 5 All six banned DR Congo vote candidates appeal. 29 August 2018.
  25. ↑ "DR Congo bans former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba's from presidential elections" . Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  26. ↑ DR Congo opposition rally behind exiled leader Katumbi. 10 March 2018.
  27. ↑ DR Congo presidential election on track – Prime Minister. 8 March 2018
  28. ↑ "Congolese oppose extension of Kabila's mandate, poll shows". Reuters. 2016. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
  29. ↑ CRG (2017-05-23). "CRG/BERCI public opinion poll: The Takeaway | Congo Research Group | Groupe d'Etude Sur le Congo". Congo Research Group. Retrieved 2018-01-22.
  30. ↑ "RDC: Elections: des opposants en tête d'un sondage — La Libre Afrique". 2 March 2018. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  31. ↑ "Moise Katumbi scores more than 50% votes in opinion polls – Mwebantu". mwebantu.com. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
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