Zambia’s Neighbour - Kabila Edges Closer To A Third Term

The controversial President of the DRC – Joseph Kabila – is edging closer to staying in power for a third term.

The president who has been in power since his father Laurent was killed in 2011, is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election. However, he has made it very clear he has no intention of leaving power, having illegally extended his stay in office for two years.

The DRC was due to hold elections in December 2016, these are now expected at the end of 2018. In an apparent tempt to change the constitution in time Kabila has announced the appointment of three new judged to court. Two of whom are well known allies who are expected to press for rulings that will permit Kabila to run for a third term.

“The Kabila clan will now do everything to push big decisions and big questions to the Constitutional Court and the court will respond in favor of Kabila’s political family,” opposition lawmaker Martin Fayulu said by phone from the capital, Kinshasa. The Presidential Majority, Kabila’s ruling coalition, said the nominations were “completely normal and legal.”

An attempt by Kabila’s backers to file his candidacy at CENI would likely be rejected, but that decision could be appealed at the Constitutional Court. That chamber could then rule he’d been wrongly rejected him because the 2011 amendment “equated to a change of regime,” according to Kapiamba.

The ‘third-term-itus’ sweeping southern Africa has serious ramifications for democratic and economic progress in the region. Just this week Burundi passed a referendum that would allow its President to rule until 2014, Museveni has been President since 1986 and Kagame since 2000. There are growing concerns and questions in our own country over the whether or not President Lungu can or should run again.