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The Democratic Republic of Congo prepared Tuesday a two-week period for candidates to register their offers for key elections as a former vice president, and the former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba took center stage. Fell 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 overturned on appeal in June.
He was officially nominated as his party's candidate in the December 23 vote, while the Kinshasa government allowed him to apply for a diplomatic pbadport.
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"I have plans to arrive in Kinshasa on the morning of August 1," said Bemba Tuesday in Brussels after his party, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), had made the announcement the day before.
"I'm coming back for the reasons family, 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 has a mission in the DRC, was informed of his plans
Bemba, a former rival of President Joseph Kabila, left the country in 2007 after a violent armed confrontation between his militia and the security forces.
He was later arrested in Europe on an arrest warrant from the ICC for war crimes. His men in the Central African Republic
But he insisted that his intentions were peaceful
"My return is not an act of revenge, there is no idea d & # 39; bitterness (or) of revenge, "he said.
Bemba's declared return adds a new and powerful factor of uncertainty to what is already a tense election in one of the most unstable countries of Africa.
Candidates must apply by August 8th.
The DRC has not experienced any peaceful transition since independence from Belgium in 1960 – and some experts fear that the December 23 elections will unleash a bloody conflict.
Kabila, 47, has been running a vast mineral-rich country since 2001 with a reputation for corruption, inequality and unrest.
He was to leave office at the end of the 2016 second term elected, technically the last allowed by the constitution.
But he remained in office, invoking a constitutional clause allowing him to stay in power until a successor was elected.
He kept everyone guessing whether he will run again, resign or take another path that will keep him on the political scene.
Dozens of people died in anti-Kabila demonstrations. The influential Roman Catholic Church called for a three-day popular mobilization, August 12-14, 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 elections should be held without electronic voting machines, which they see as a tool to rig the results
"Kabila can no longer stand hold, "I am campaigning for only one opposition candidacy," he said, adding that it would not "necessarily be me."
Opposition forces 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 now heads the party
In His Objective is Moses Katumbi, the former governor of the southeastern province of Katanga, who voluntarily exiled himself in 2016 after getting scrambled with his friend Kabila.
He will return in the next few days to submit his candidacy, "His lawyer in Paris, Olivier Kamitatu, has clarified Tuesday.
Bemba faces a decision in a separate ICC case concerning the bribery of witnesses. The legal experts, however, believe that he would definitely be released in light of the decade that he has already gone behind bars.
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