Congo opposition leader Bemba returns home for presidential bid
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba returned home on Wednesday after a decade in prison in The Hague for a presidential run expected to pose a stiff challenge to President Joseph Kabila or his successor in December’s election.
Congolese opposition leader and former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba is pictured after a news conference in Brussels, Belgium July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
Bemba, whose war crimes convictions at the International Criminal Court (ICC) were quashed on appeal in May, touched down aboard a private jet at Kinshasa’s N’Djili airport where thousands of cheering supporters wore T-shirts, hats, scarves and robes bearing his image.
Dressed in a dark suit and a red tie, Bemba, 55, shook hands with family members and officials from his MLC party before getting into a white SUV to drive toward the city center, where he is due to attend a mass.
MLC official Jean-Jacques Mbungani told reporters that Bemba would submit his candidacy with the electoral commission on Thursday before flying to his family’s hometown of Gemena in northwestern Congo to pay his respects to his deceased father.
“The Congolese people have waited for this moment for a long time,” said Toussaint Bodongo, an MLC member. “Bemba will maybe bring the solution that we need to Congo.”
The former vice president and warlord’s return is expected to energize opposition to Kabila, who has been in power since his father’s assassination in 2001 and is barred by constitutional term limits from standing for a new term.
Kabila has refused to commit publicly to not contesting the election. That has kept the country in suspense over whether he will choose someone else to represent his ruling coalition, paving the way for Congo’s first democratic transition, or try to run again and risk a violent backlash.
Security forces have killed dozens of protesters since late 2016 when Kabila refused to step aside at the end of his mandate, saying elections needed more time to be organized. Militia violence in the eastern borderlands has surged since then.
The deadline to file candidacies is Aug. 8. Bemba said last week that he believes he is the strongest candidate to represent the opposition but would be willing to cede his place in favor of another candidate.
He could also see his eligibility to run challenged in the courts. The ruling coalition said last week he is disqualified from running by a witness tampering conviction at the ICC even though convictions for murder, rape and pillage committed by his militia in neighboring Central African Republic in 2002 were thrown out.
The invalidation of Bemba’s candidacy would infuriate his supporters, especially in western Congo. His loss to Kabila in the 2006 election saw gunbattles in the streets of Kinshasa between his militiamen and government troops.
“If they try to exclude him, we know that’s political,” said Denise Vila, the provincial coordinator of the MLC’s women’s league. “We are going to fight so that Jean-Pierre Bemba stays in the race.”
Another opposition hopeful, the millionaire businessman and former provincial governor Moise Katumbi, plans to return to Congo on Friday after two years in exile but risks arrest due to a conviction for real estate fraud in 2016.
According to a poll released on Tuesday, Katumbi and fellow opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi lead the presidential race with 19 percent of the vote each. Bemba would receive 17 percent and Kabila nine percent.
Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Janet Lawrence, William Maclean
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