Political infighting delays new Congo government
Source: Reuters
By Joe Bavier KINSHASA, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Wrangling over who should occupy key posts is delaying the formation of Congo's new government after the country's first democratic elections in more than four decades, politicians and analysts said on Monday. President Joseph Kabila, who won historic elections meant to reunite Democratic Republic of Congo after years of mismanagement and war, promised in his Dec. 6 inauguration speech to name within days a new prime minister who would then form a government. But Kabila's majority in the new parliament has allowed his lawmakers to alter procedures for choosing members of key commissions, leading to disagreement with the opposition, which fears it will be left marginalised. Some 55 newly elected opposition members of parliament filed an appeal with the Supreme Court last week claiming some new bylaws, specifically those concerning the heading of commissions of inquiry and parliamentary finance, were unconstitutional. "The presidencies of the commissions of inquiry and control over the management of finances should be in the hands of the opposition," said Thomas Luhaka, secretary general of the opposition Union for the Nation, who signed the appeal. "That is what is done in other countries to give credibility," he said. Members of Kabila's own Alliance of the Presidential Majority (AMP), which propelled him to victory over former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, are also jostling for top posts pledged in return for their support in the presidential vote. "If you make lots of deals before an election, the problem then is how to accommodate all these groups afterwards," said Caty Clement, central Africa project director at the International Crisis Group, a conflict analysis think-tank. "They all want their part." OPPOSITION VETERAN TIPPED Kabila's AMP says the Supreme Court must complete its review of the bylaws before a majority coalition can be formally recognised and a prime minister chosen. Luhaka said MPs had been told the court would make a decision on their appeal by December 21. Veteran opposition leader Antoine Gizenga, 81, is widely viewed as the likely choice for prime minister but no official decision has yet been announced. Gizenga served as deputy to Congo's slain independence Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. He later headed a rebel government of Lumumba supporters based in Kisangani in the northeast before being first jailed and then exiled for nearly 30 years. He stood as the Unified Lumumbist Party (PALU) candidate in the first-round presidential poll in July, finishing third with just over 13 percent of votes. As part of a deal intended to improve Kabila's appeal in the west, where Bemba commands fanatical support, PALU was promised the premier post in exchange for its support in the Oct. 29 second round. "The Supreme Court must make its observations and then send them back to parliament," Sylvain Ngabu, secretary general of Gizenga's party, told Reuters on Monday. "Then we expect the agreements we signed to be applied." The polls, backed and funded by the United Nations and the international community, were meant to draw a line under a 1998-2003 civil war that left an estimated four million Congolese dead, most from the resulting humanitarian crisis.
| AlertNet news is provided by |  |
