From the sprawling capital Kinshasa to villages deep in the equatorial forests, Congo’s ruling PPRD is in full-on election campaign mode – and President Joseph Kabila’s face is everywhere.
The deadline for declaring candidates for Democratic Republic of Congo’s scheduled Dec. 23 poll is just over two months away, and Kabila, 46, is officially not allowed to run again.
But his bearded portrait smiles down from billboards and T-shirts being printed by his People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), while there is no sign of a successor.
After a reshuffle this month of Congo’s Constitutional Court and provocative comments from members of his inner circle, suspicion is rife that Kabila – in power since the death of his father, Laurent, in 2001 – intends to bypass the constitution and run for a third term.
Any such move would likely ignite chaos across the vast, mineral-rich country, which has never seen a peaceful change of power in the 58 years since independence from Belgium.
“We were with Kabila, we are still with Kabila and we will still be with Kabila,” PPRD permanent secretary Emmanuel Ramazani Shadari said on May 5 in an address aired on radio.
The deadline for declaring candidates is Aug. 8.
A spokesman for Shadari did not respond to a request for clarification, Kabila has repeatedly dodged the question and government spokesman Lambert Mende told reporters on Monday he was “not aware of a plan to change the constitution”.
Kabila is unpopular in the capital Kinshasa and many parts of the country. A rare poll released in March showed that eight in 10 Congolese have an unfavourable opinion of him. Scores have died in protests since he refused to step down when his mandate expired 18 months ago.
