The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Felix Tshisekedi in power since January 2019 announced, Wednesday, in an interview with the pan-African magazine “Jeune Afrique”, his ambition to run for a second five-year term.
“I have the right to serve two terms, why would I stop on the way? I have a vision for this country, I want to realize it. If the people want to grant me this second term, I will continue my mission. And then I will hand it over,” Tshisekedi said in his interview.
The 58-year-old president said he favoured the reinstatement of the two-round presidential election, suspended since 2006.
“Presidents who are elected with 30% or 40% of the vote are not a guarantee of legitimacy. The only problem is the budget, which must be more or less doubled. That said, it is not me who decides, it is the National Assembly,” said Tshisekedi.
Regarding the elections supposed to be held in 2023, he assured that he was for “elections as transparent as possible” after having solved “all the problems of the Independent National Electoral Commission (Ceni)” but, he qualified, “it is its members who will tell us if the deadlines can be met or not. If they are respected, so much the better.
If they are not, Tshisekedi said, “everyone will see it and agree on what to do next.
While his first ally and former chief of staff, Vital Kamerhe, has been in prison since April 2020 (sentenced on appeal to thirteen years of “hard labor” for corruption and embezzlement), Tshisekedi assured that there is “no shadow of discord between Vital and me. I did not make any calculation and did not manipulate anyone to get him where he is today.
He said he had heard that “some people were saying that he [Kamerhe] had become a political adversary, but that is totally false,” according to Tshisekedi.
“He and I,” he continued, “had discussed on several occasions a second candidacy for me. He agreed and was ready to step aside. It was me, moreover, who said to him: Listen, Vital, politically, it is too early to make a decision. You will do it, but not now, it is useless.
A former opponent who was proclaimed the winner of the controversial December 30, 2018 presidential election, Tshisekedi succeeded his former opponent Joseph Kabila, who led the country from 2001-2019, in January 2019.
The two men had led the world’s largest French-speaking country until December 2020, when Tshisekedi ended their coalition by getting several pro-Kabila and opposition members of parliament to join his “Sacred Union” program amid allegations of corruption.