For the PPRD, the constitutional revision of 2011 gives a right to a new mandate to Joseph Kabila

The Deputy Permanent Secretary of the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), Ferdinand Kambere, has been living in Dar-es-Salam, Tanzania since some days. He was invited to participate in a major thematic conference for a high-level dialogue between leaders of African political parties. These meetings are organized by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with the Chama cha Mapinduzi Party (CCM) of Tanzania. Taking advantage of his stay in the country of John Magufuli, Ferdinand Kambere supports, in an interview with the press, the legitimization of a third term for Joseph Kabila. Interview

What is the reason for your stay here in Dar es Salaam?

We were invited by the Chinese Communist Party, which together with the Chama cha Mapinduzi Party of Tanzania, organized a major thematic conference for a high-level dialogue between the leaders of African political parties, with a view to promoting the exchanges between political parties with this objective that the political parties still have this capacity to strengthen their structure to develop visionary programs in relation to the solutions to the aspirations of the African peoples, in relation to peace, with respect to security, by relation to education, in relation to health and all that employment, so that together in this win-win cooperation where the partners respect each other, we can still have strong governments that meet its aspirations of the

And China, at the conclusion of this conference, through the CCP, said that it will no longer be silent when other partners are there to impose their vision of democracy that is different from the vision of the Africans themselves, to the self-determination of the people and to establish a democracy that respects our traditional values, which respect the authority that directs and respects the people. That's it. So we refuse to be, as the French professor Philipe Ardent says, this people who makes of its constitution, a constitution of facade and in practice, it develops something else. What we want here is what is in our constitution to be applied and understood by our courts and tribunals if there is litigation.

Can you explain to us the principle of legitimation as you Defend in your PPRD party the mandate of a president especially Joseph Kabila?

That means in our constitution, especially we are in a representative democracy, which is with regard to the election of the President of the Republic, enshrined in Articles 5, 70 and 71. That's it which constitutes a constitutional regime of the election or the legitimation of the election of the President of the Republic. This principle must be taken as a whole when we come to the different campaigns that have been carried out by a group of the opposition in our country, also by some tenors of the Cenco, to say that the head of state, he is forbidden to run for a third term, you feel in this demonization campaign of the process first of all because they ask that the Ceni resign, that the process stops there, they sometimes ask transitions without Kabila, sometimes elections without Kabila, it is simply to put all the people, the national and international opinion in an orchestrated blur, such as since the scientific thesis developed by Me Jean Cyrius Mirindi was debated and submitted in contradictory public, it actually proved that those who attached to the only principle locked, article locked 220 in relation to the duration and number of mandate of the President of the Republic, are wrong in first prohibiting the referendum in our country and continue to sing that it is forbidden for the president to seek a third term. Given that the system of legitimizing the mandate of the presidential election in our country must be interpreted in relation to articles 5, 70 and 71. They are linked, it is a whole, we can not separate them to understand them . Because when Article 5 says that national sovereignty belongs to the Congolese people, that all power emanates from the people and that suffrage must be universal, equal and direct, this must be understood in Article 70 which tells us that mandate of the President of the Republic is 5 years renewable once. It means that this mandate, which is five years to be renewed, must be of the same nature, of the same character, of the same species. But with the 2011 revision, we find that the mandate that Kabila had in 2006 was a mandate of 5 years certainly, but mandate obtained under the legitimacy that has the range of 51% or more, ie by absolute majority. [19659007] In 2011 when now the same mandate of the President of the Republic, the range of the legitimization of the election passes from the absolute majority to the simple majority, it means that it becomes certainly a mandate of the President of the Republic of 5 years but

But what does New Year's Eve say about the president's mandate?

This is where I talk about the demonization campaign because the agreement is clear. The second chapter of this agreement says that stakeholders in the dialogue commit to respect the constitution. This constitution is the one that was revised in 2011. Where does the Cenco and everything that is being created in its wake, like the CLC, found this prohibition in our constitution? You have to read clause 70 as it stands. The mandate of the president is 5 years renewable once. For it to be renewable, to say that a mandate obtained by Joseph in 2011 is the renewal of the 2006 mandate, it must be said that it has remained a mandate of the same nature, of the same kind and of the same character. However, they are not able to demonstrate it, even if they say they are more legalistic or more constitutional than the others. If they are serious with themselves, instead of calling the public on the street, they have only to agree to go before the judges to create a dispute, in case Kabila files his candidacy. At that time, the court will respond. But for the moment, it is only in citizen debates on the eligibility or not of Joseph Kabila. He himself has not yet pronounced, but we PPRD support this hypothesis. He still has this right in relation to our constitution.

When President Kabila says he will respect the Constitution. Which Constitution do you think is from 2006 or 2011?

Exactly that is where everyone is ridiculed when they thought to trap him in this agreement by saying against the constitution that we can not revise the constitution, we can not go to the referendum, they have forgotten because at that moment he was only waiting for the third principle which is locked in Article 220, which is a principle that concerns the duration and the number of terms of office of the President of the Republic. They had totally ignored that in 2011 there was already a principle that was changed, it is the principle of universal suffrage that is enshrined in Articles 5, 70 and 71 of the Constitution. And once you have moved to section 71 to move from an absolute majority to a simple majority, there is no renewal; at that time, there was a break, there was a new constitution and all constitutional law professors around the world know it. When a principle that has been locked in a constitution is changed by a law, or by some modification mechanism, a new constitution is born. That's the reality of the law, that's the legal science.

Molina / Forum des As

(CL / GW / Yes)