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The Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday prepared a two-week period for candidates to register their offers for key elections while former vice president and former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba was at the center of the debate. Towards the start of the recording at midnight, Bemba said he would be going home next week to file for the presidency – the first opposition candidate to do so at the polls. foreign
Bemba, 55, former warlord and businessman. International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague before an 18-year war crimes conviction was quashed on appeal in June
He was formally nominated as a candidate for his party's vote on December 23, then that the government of Kinshasa authorized it. "I intend to arrive in Kinshasa on the morning of August 1," Bemba said Tuesday in Brussels after his party, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), had made the announcement. the previous ev
"I'm coming back for family reasons, to see where my father is buried and to apply for the presidential elections," Bemba said at a press conference.
He said that he would arrive on board a private plane and that the Congolese authorities and the United Nations, which have a mission in the DRC, were informed of his plans.
Bemba, former rival of President Joseph Kabila, left the country in 2007 after a violent armed confrontation between
He was later arrested in Europe on an arrest warrant from the ICC for war crimes committed by his men in the Central African Republic.
But he insisted that his intentions were peaceful
"My return This is not an act of revenge, there is no idea of bitterness (or of revenge). "
– Unpredictable –
Bemba's declared return adds a new and powerful factor of uncertainty to what is already a tense election – one of the most volatile countries in Africa. Candidates must submit their candidacy by August 8.
The DRC has experienced no peaceful transition since its independence from Belgium in 1960 – and some experts fear that the December 23 elections will trigger the election. A bloody conflict.
Kabila, 47, has been running a vast mineral-rich country since 2001, renowned for its corruption, inequality and unrest.
He was to resign at the end of 2016 after his second elected term , technically the last allowed by the constitution.
But he remained in power, invoking a constitutional clause allowing him to remain in power until the election of a successor.
everyone guessed whether he would run again, withdraw or take another path that could allow him to stay on the political scene.
Dozens of people died in anti-Kabila demonstrations. The influential Roman Catholic Church called for a three-day popular mobilization from August 12 to 14 if Kabila rises again
The five main opposition parties issued a statement Monday calling for elections " free, democratic and transparent ". ] But they insisted that Kabila should not participate and that the elections should be held without electronic voting machines, which they see as a tool to rig the results
"Kabila can no longer resist, the constitution is there. "I am campaigning for only one opposition candidacy," he said, adding that it would not "necessarily be me."
Opposition Forces include the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UPDS), which lost last year its former leader and former prime minister Etienne Tshisekedi, who died at the age of 84. His son Felix directs Now the party's presidency Moise Katumbi, the former governor of the southeastern province of Katanga, has himself imposed himself in exile in 2016 after getting scrambled with his friend Kabila.
He "will come back in the next few days to submit his candidacy", "his lawyer in Paris, Olivier Kamitatu, said Tuesday.
Bemba faces a decision in a separate ICC case concerning witness corruption. The legal experts however think that he will definitely be released in the light of the decade that he has already gone behind bars
Jean-Pierre Bemba, former rebel leader of the DR Congo, returns in his country on 1 August, with presidential elections scheduled for 23 December.
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