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| © Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Felix Tshisekedi, leader of Congolese main opposition UDPS, gestures to his supporters in the Limete Municipality of Kinshasa |
The candidate to represent Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila’s ruling coalition in a presidential election in December will be announced “in the coming hours”, the government spokesman said on Tuesday.
Spokesman Lambert Mende’s statement followed a meeting between Kabila and coalition members at his farm outside the capital Kinshasa. Candidates have until Wednesday afternoon to register with the national electoral commission.
Kabila, in power since 2001, is barred by term limits from running for re-election but has refused to commit publicly to not standing. That has raised fears he might do so anyway, which risks throwing the volatile central African country into chaos.
Security forces have killed dozens of protesters since Kabila refused to quit power at the end of mandate in December 2016, saying the government was not yet prepared to hold the election to succeed him. Militia violence in the eastern borderlands with Rwanda and Uganda has also risen.
Western powers and Congo’s neighbours fear even worse violence across the country if Kabila digs in and runs, with memories still fresh of civil wars around the turn of the century that killed millions, most from hunger and disease.
Kabila met on Tuesday afternoon with members of his electoral coalition, the Common Front for Congo (FCC), at his farm in the village of Kingakati, about 80 km (50 miles) outside the Kinshasa.
Participants in the meeting included Mende, Commerce Minister Jean-Lucien Bussa, Planning Minister Modeste Bahati and the president of the lower house of parliament, Aubin Minaku.
Minaku has been tipped as one of the candidates to emerge as Kabila’s chosen successor, as has former prime minister Augustin Matata Ponyo.
Several opposition candidates have also registered their candidacies for the Dec. 23 vote. They include former vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba, who was recently acquitted of war crimes at the International Criminal Court, and Vital Kamerhe, who finished third in the 2011 election.
On Tuesday, Felix Tshisekedi, the president of Congo’s largest opposition party, the UDPS, and son of the late opposition icon Etienne Tshisekedi, filed his candidacy at the electoral commission headquarters in Kinshasa.
As Tshisekdi drove to the headquarters, clashes briefly broke out between supporters of his, who threw rocks, and police officers, who riposted with volleys of teargas, witnesses said.
Tryphon Kin-Kiey, a Kabila ally who founded a political party called “Kabila Desire”, also submitted his candidacy on Tuesday as an independent, a move that was quickly disavowed by members of his political coalition.
