Congolese Opposition Party Changes Leadership Before Elections
The political party led by former Democratic Republic of Congo presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba, who is under indictment at the International Criminal Court, changed its leadership ahead of elections this year.
Thomas Luhaka, a lawmaker, took over as secretary-general of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, or MLC, from Francois Mwamba, who ran the party after Bemba’s transfer to The Hague, Luhaka said in a phone interview today.
“We need to restructure the party before the upcoming deadlines for the elections,” Luhaka said from Kinshasa, the capital. The MLC hasn’t yet decided whether it will nominate its own presidential candidate or support one from another party in a vote currently scheduled for November, he said.
Bemba was runner-up to Joseph Kabila in Congo’s 2006 presidential elections, the country’s first in more than four decades. Supporters of the former rebel leader clashed with Kabila’s soldiers in the streets of Kinshasa in 2007, leaving hundreds dead. Bemba is facing charges at the ICC of leading militias who murdered and raped civilians in neighboring Central African Republic in 2002 and 2003. He has pleaded not guilty.
The MLC informed Bemba of the leadership change “and he is in agreement,” Luhaka said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael J. Kavanagh in Kinshasa at mkavanagh9@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.
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