A year after electorates headed to the polls in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), opposition leader and former presidential candidate, Martin Fayulu, has called for early elections to be held. This is despite the election cycle of 4 years which determines that the next elections in the DRC be in 2023.
Fayulu, who contested and claimed to have won the 2018 presidential elections on the Lamuka Coalition ticket against now incumbent president Felix Tshisekedi, made his intentions known when he arrived in the country’s capital of Kinshasa after six months in Europe and the United States.
“I am a fighter. I will not back down. When the time comes, I will issue a slogan for us to march to go and siege the People’s Palace,” he said referring to the official residence of the President in Kinshasa.
The Lamuka leader revealed that he had written to the African Union in February 2019 to propose two solutions aimed at ending the ongoing crisis in the country: The first being that the continental body oversees a vote recount in Kinshasa, and the other, a repeat election, which must come earlier than the planned 2023, but after adequate reforms in the electoral regime and the electoral commission.
Kabila Still In Charge of the DRC
“I told you that Félix (Tshisekedi) is a puppet and that it is another person who is in power. Isn’t that what we see today?” asked Fayulu as he addressed his supporters in Kinshasa.
This sentiment echoes issues that have been raised following the controversial 2018 elections with allegations that former president, Joseph Kabila, rigged the elections in favour of his successor, Tsishekedi, in exchange for access to power behind the scenes ranging from the legislative branch of government to the security sector, and the DRC economy.
Recent Protests
A recent decision by the National Assembly of the DRC to nominate Ronsard Malonda as chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) has been met with pushbacks from opposition parties and the general public, resulting in the deaths of several protesters. Malonda has been accused of “abetting every stolen election since 2006.”
