Post-Election Affairs in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Get­ty Images/AFP

Sup­port­ers of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of the Con­go’s new pres­i­dent cel­e­brate ahead of Felix Tshisekedi’s inau­gu­ra­tion on Thursday.

Edi­tor’s Note: A lot has hap­pened in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of Con­go (DRC) since the Decem­ber 30, 2018 elec­tions. In this analy­sis, our own Uni­qua Smith scout­ed the web and oth­er sources for news and infor­ma­tion fol­low­ing the his­toric trans­fer of pow­er in the nation. 

In the process of find­ing out what is tak­ing place Smith says learn­ing about the DRC is like drink­ing out of a fire hydrant. She says she is astound­ed by how much there is to learn about the DRC. 

“That research was like drink­ing out of the fire hydrant. Every time I gained under­stand­ing of one thing, I learned anoth­er,” Smith tells us. On the elec­tion mat­ter Smith thinks “Per­haps the DRC should work through this one on their own- just until we get our own crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tions finalized.” 

That inves­ti­ga­tion she refers to is the inves­ti­ga­tion by the U.S. Spe­cial Coun­sel, Robert Mueller, into alle­ga­tions that Rus­sia med­dled in or influ­enced the 2016 Amer­i­can pres­i­den­tial elec­tion in favor of Don­ald Trump. 

His­toric Moment

After a long-await­ed elec­tion, the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of Con­go (DRC) saw what is being called The First Peace­ful Trans­fer of Pow­er in 60 Years on Jan­u­ary 24, 2019; when Felix Tshiseke­di has inau­gu­rat­ed as Pres­i­dent of the DRC.

Despite many online rumors such as this one, that Pres­i­dent Tshiseke­di died dur­ing his inau­gu­ra­tion speech, he is alive and well and has suc­cess­ful­ly assumed his posi­tion as Commander-in-Chief.

Dur­ing his inau­gu­ra­tion speech, Tshiseke­di fell ill though, due to swel­ter­ing heat and his bul­let­proof vest being too tight, accord­ing to reports tak­en by Pres­i­dent Tshisekedi’s bodyguards.

The Jan­u­ary 24 inau­gu­ra­tion marks the first time that the DRC has seen a new pres­i­dent in 18 years, 23 years since the last time the coun­try was not run by a mem­ber of the Kabi­la fam­i­ly, and approx­i­mate­ly 60 years since the last time that the DRC has had a liv­ing for­mer President.

Tshiseke­di defeat­ed anoth­er strong oppo­si­tion leader- Mar­tin Fayu­lu in the high­ly con­tro­ver­sial Decem­ber 30, 2018 elec­tions- win­ning the major­i­ty votes — 38 per­cent to Fayulu’s 34 per­cent- accord­ing to the Country’s Elec­toral Com­mis­sion (CENI).

Elec­tion Controversy

Since the elec­tions, there has report­ed­ly been a lot of civ­il unrest, as los­ing oppo­nent Fayu­lu has urged cit­i­zens nation­wide to call a protest-feel­ing as if the elec­tions had been rigged, and that Kabi­la struck a back­door deal with Tshiseke­di in order to main­tain his pow­er over the DRC.

While the notion appears far-fetched con­sid­er­ing Tshisekeidi’s father; Eti­enne Tshisekei­di was a long-time oppo­si­tion leader and rival to for­mer Pres­i­dent Felix Kabi­la, many cit­i­zens are tak­ing Fayulu’s claims to heart.

For­eign Intervention

The Catholic Church even weighed in on the elec­tion- hav­ing employed 40,000 of their own “elec­tion day observers” the Catholic Church alleges that Fayu­lu is the right­ful win­ner of the elec­tion and undoubt­ed­ly added much fuel to the fire. There have report­ed­ly been as many as 12 killings in con­nec­tion with the elec­tions since the trans­fer of power.

As many mem­bers of the Trump Admin­is­tra­tion are cur­rent­ly fac­ing fed­er­al indict­ment and tons of its own post-elec­tion dra­ma stem­ming back from 2016, the Coun­cil on For­eign Rela­tions and some news out­lets have voiced their opin­ion that it is nec­es­sary that the US inter­vene in the elec­toral affairs of the DRC. 

Post- Inau­gu­ra­tion Affairs for Pres­i­dent Tshisekedi

If civ­il unrest and elec­tion scan­dals aren’t t too heavy a bur­den to car­ry, the new­ly elect­ed Pres­i­dent also has some immense leg­isla­tive bat­tles ahead try­ing to maneu­ver past the large­ly pro-Kabi­la Par­lia­ment- in order to invoke any sig­nif­i­cant change to the state of affairs in DRC.

Just 3 days into Tshisekedi’s pres­i­den­cy, he is faced with the first chal­lenge of his new career. Mul­ti­ple strikes broke loose across the pub­lic sec­tor as unions demand­ed back pay of wages imme­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing the exchange of pow­er. Tshiseke­di rose to the occa­sion, order­ing pay­ment of back­dat­ed wages to the employ­ees of Transco.

Just as Tshiseke­di resolved wage issues at Transco- work­ers at sev­er­al dif­fer­ent orga­ni­za­tions began to demand back wages, and strikes ensued across sev­er­al dif­fer­ent sectors.

My Take

Con­grat­u­la­tions to the DRC on mak­ing peace­ful progress towards a more sta­ble, and brighter eco­nom­ic future. If Pres­i­dent Tshiske­di is true to his word, then the DRC will over­come some of the eco­nom­ic sta­tis­tics cur­rent­ly being report­ed by the World Bank in DRC, and actu­al­ize its “poten­tial to become one of the rich­est coun­tries on the continent.”

Per­haps the DRC should work through this one on their own- just until we in Amer­i­ca can get our own crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tions finalized.