Rev Daniel Ngoy Mulunda
CENI Chairman
Photo: John Bompengo/Radio Okapi
On September 15, CENI published the following list of 11 presidential candidates it has approved:
Les candidats retenus sont:
Jean Andeka Djamba (ANCC)
Etienne Tshisekedi (UDPS)
François Joseph Nzanga Mobutu (Udémo)
Vital Kamerhe (UNC)
Kengo wa dondo (UFC)
Nicephore Kakese (URDC)
Joseph Kabila (Independent)
Oscar Kashala (UREC)
Antipas Mbusa Nyamwisi (Independent)
Adam Bombole (Independent)
Josué Alex Mukendi Kamama (Independent)
The presidential candidates who weren’t approved have until Monday, September 19, to introduce their appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ).
Rev Mulunda bemoaned the fact that “No female candidacy was registered among the eleven” candidates. He added that 7,200 candidacies were approved for those running for the 500 seats in the National Assembly.
Presidential hopeful Rev Jean-Paul Moka, who is not on the list of candidates approved by CENI, sent me a one-sentence Facebook message stating that “your article about me is full of mistakes and falsehood.” Needless to say, Rev Moka didn’t address his lies about his coming from the dead.
Presidential candidate Adam Bombole has since been banned from MLC.
2) Pius Muabilu, pro-Kabila stalwart and owner of L’Avenir, quits PPRD for “deleterious ambiance”
MP Pius Muabila Mbayu Mukala
Owner of Pro-Kabila L’Avenir and Groupe L'Avenir
An editorial published on September 19 in L’Avenir announces the double resignation of MP Pius Muabilu from Kabila’s PPRD and from the National Assembly. Muabilu’s standing within PPRD had become untenable ever since his television channel RTGA carried live the entirety of the proceedings of the congress of Vital Kamerhe’s Union pour la Nation Congolaise (UNC) on July 28. Muabilu will run for as MP for a new party he co-created called Congrès National Congolais (CNC), which supports Kabila. Muabilu accused PPRD of engaging in “continuous squabbling” and being riven by “chaos”—a “deleterious ambiance” hardly conducive to democratic “debate.”
But observers also note that two additional grievances might have motivated Mwabilu’s double resignation:
a) There’s a growing discontent in pro-Kabila media about the recently announced juicy propaganda contract awarded to French PR racketeer Jean-Michel Metthey; and
b) Speaker Evariste Boshab, who was elected MP in 2006 in Mweka, in Kasai Occidental Province, chooses this time to run in the Kinshasa Mont-Amba constituency, Pius Muabilu’s own constituency. Had Muabilu remained on PPRD list, he’d have been forced to play second fiddle as an “alternate candidate.”
In an unrelated development, it seems that the newly-appointed Minister of Economy Jean-Pierre Daruwezi continues in his previous capacity as chief spy at the Agence Nationale de Renseignements (ANR). Daruwezi will still run for MP in Kinsangani. According to insiders I talked to, Daruwezi was appointed minister to give him “visibility” in the run-up to the election.
3) Batshit crazy Etienne Tshisekedi visits jailed war-criminal suspect Thomas Lubanga at The Hague
Gen Thomas Lubanga Dillo
Erstwhile Warlord, jailed war-criminal suspect
On September 16, Etienne Tshisekedi went to pay visit to erstwhile warlord Thomas Lubanga Dillo, jailed for the past 5 years and a half at the Scheveningen Prison complex on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and for recruiting child soldiers in his militia in Ituri.
Said Tshisekedi:
“I came to pay visit to Thomas Lubanga Dillo, a combatant of my party and a popular man. My presence here is a testimony that we fight for the rule of law and change. Once in power, we won’t allow that a Congolese be imprisoned abroad.”
I get a lot of flak for painting Tshisekedi as the jerk he is. And I wonder what defense his supporters would deploy to justify such batshit craziness. To claim as his “combatant” a man whose goal as leader of “Union of Congolese Patriots (…) was to establish dominance of the Hema ethnic group through violence against non-Hema people—especially Lendu militias and civilians,” is beyond madness. It shows that Tshisekedi is unfit to be president of the DRC.
4) Vital Kamerhe: “With Kabila, we’ve slid back to the Stone Age”
Vital Kamerhe
Presidential candidate
Photo: John Bompengo/Radio Okapi
On September 16, Vital Kamerhe held a press conference to react to Kabila’s speech, calling on the Audiovisual and Communication High Council (CSAC) “to not allow Kabila to carry out electoral campaigning he has already illegally started.”
Talking specifically about electricity and water supply, Kamerhe said:
“It’s no longer a matter of [ordinary] blackouts that had a certain rhythm, a certain sequence. Now there are three-day electricity outages in posh neighborhoods like ours. But in populous neighborhoods, there’s no electricity for three months in a row… Even the downtown area [now] lacks water [supply]. In [posh] neighborhoods like Macampagne, people have recourse to public fountains. We’ve therefore slid back to the Stone Age.”
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