10, January 2019
Congo-Kinshasa: Felix Tshisekedi from opposition scion to provisional president-elect 0
The son of DR Congo’s veteran opposition leader, Felix Tshisekedi, has taken the prize that long eluded his father – the presidency of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest country – in a surprise result his main opponent has denounced as an “electoral coup”.
On Thursday Tshisekedi was named by election officials as the provisional winner of the country’s long-delayed, chaotic and controversial presidential poll, in a surprise announcement that appeared to contradict both pre-election surveys and the findings of independent monitors.
Runner-up Martin Fayulu, the pre-election favourite, promptly denounced the results as an “electoral coup” that does “not reflect the truth of the ballots”.
In a rare comment on a foreign election, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also waded into the controversy, describing the results as “the opposite to what we expected”. He added: “The Catholic Church of Congo did its tally and announced completely different results.”
If Tshisekedi’s stunning victory is confirmed by the constitutional court, he will become the first Congolese leader to take power at the ballot box since Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, who was toppled and killed in a coup shortly after independence in 1960.
‘A historic vote and a historic win’
Tshisekedi is the head of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), a party founded by his father Etienne, who spent decades as the country’s main opposition leader but died in February last year.
Known to his friends as “Fatshi”, the portly 55-year-old is now poised to replace President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled the volatile, poverty-stricken nation with an iron fist since 2001.
But for a while, it looked like he wouldn’t even be on the ballot.
Pentecostal rivals
On November 11, Tshisekedi joined six other opposition leaders in rallying behind Fayulu to take on Kabila’s handpicked successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary.
But the deal drew a furious response from his supporters, prompting him and fellow opposition leader Vital Kamerhe to abandon the deal and run on a joint ticket, weakening and splitting the opposition.
The pair had previously agreed that if they won, Kamerhe would become Tshisekedi’s prime minister.
Profile: Felix Tshisekedi
Since his father founded the UDPS in 1982, the party has served as an opposition mainstay in the former Belgian colony – first under dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, then under Kabila’s father Laurent-Desire Kabila, who ruled from 1997 until his death in 2001. A father of five, Tshisekedi goes to the same Pentecostal church as Fayulu in Kinshasa, the capital.
Although he does not enjoy the same degree of popularity as his father, he has risen steadily through the party ranks. “Etienne was stubborn and proud,” said one keen observer of the country’s opposition. “Felix is more diplomatic, more conciliatory, more ready to listen to others.”
‘Coup’
In 2008, Tshisekedi became national secretary for external relations and was elected to the national assembly in 2011 as representative for Mbuji-Mayi, the country’s third city.
However, he never took up his seat as he did not formally recognise his father’s defeat to Kabila in a presidential election the same year. A month after his father’s death, Tshisekedi was elected as party head.
Although he holds a Belgian diploma in marketing and communication, his opponents point out that he has never held high office or had managerial experience. And some detractors have even suggested his diploma is not valid.
The legacy of DR Congo’s Joseph Kabila
Tshisekedi has promised a return to the rule of law, to fight the “gangrene” of corruption and to bring peace to the volatile east of the country, where several militias remain active more than 15 years after the end of DR Congo’s bloody civil war.
However, the result of the presidential election, which observers said was marred by a spate of irregularities, is certain to fuel suspicions among Fayulu’s supporters that Tshisekedi struck a power-sharing pact with Kabila – suspicions heightened by his victory speech on Thursday, in which he described his former bitter opponent Kabila as a “partner of democratic change”.
Fayulu, who was running well ahead of Tshisekedi in opinion polls ahead of the election, on Thursday called on the Congolese people to “rise as one man to protect victory.” Analysts have warned that any widespread perception the election has been stolen could trigger a cycle of unrest, particularly in the eastern borderlands where Fayulu enjoys some of his strongest support.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)
10, January 2019
US: Trump storms out of meeting with Democrats on shutdown 0
President Donald Trump said “bye-bye” and stormed out of negotiations Wednesday on funding a US-Mexico border wall when Democratic opponents refused to agree to the project.
“A total waste of time,” Trump tweeted about his White House meeting with top Democratic congressional leaders. “I said bye-bye, nothing else works!”
Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, told journalists Trump “sort of slammed the table,” then “got up and walked out.”
“Again, we saw a temper tantrum because he couldn’t get his way,” Schumer said. Although the two sides agreed that the meeting ended abruptly, they argued over who was to blame.
According to supporters of Trump at the meeting, the president asked Democratic leaders whether they would agree to fund his wall project in exchange for him ending a painful shutdown of swaths of government, which he has instigated in retaliation for the standoff.
The Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, “raised her hand and said no, not at all,” said Kevin McCarthy, the senior Republican in the House, who was also present. “We heard once again that Democratic leaders are unwilling to even negotiate,” Vice President Mike Pence said.
The vice president insisted that Trump came in good faith.
“The president walked into the room and passed out candy,” Pence said. “I don’t recall him ever raising his voice or slamming his hand.”
Shutdown
Trump wants $5.7 billion to fund a wall he says is needed to keep out dangerous illegal immigrants, drug dealers and people smugglers from Mexico.
Democrats say the wall would have little impact on real border problems and that Trump’s tough approach has instead created a humanitarian crisis among vulnerable, unthreatening migrants.
Trump’s main lever to exert pressure on Congress has been to refuse signing spending bills that cover large areas of government. As a result, some 800,000 federal employees and many more contractors have now been without pay for almost three weeks.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer: “we saw a temper tantrum”
Democrats insist they will not lift their opposition to the wall project and believe Americans will tire of the shutdown chaos and blame Trump.
But Trump indicated Wednesday on a visit to Republican allies in Congress that he will continue to play hardball.
“Whatever it takes,” he told journalists, when asked how long the shutdown could continue.
Earlier at the White House, Trump told journalists that if he cannot get his way, he could declare a national emergency — a measure that allows him to bypass Congress and take the wall funds he needs from the military.
“I think we might work a deal, and if we don’t, we might go that route,” he said, insisting he has the “absolute right” to declare an emergency, despite warnings in Congress that this could be seen as serious presidential overreach.
‘American blood’ speech
Trump’s triumphant 2016 campaign relied heavily on his “build the wall” slogan and since then, he has pushed the idea that the United States is being overwhelmed by dangerous migrants who enter the country illegally.
But with Democrats winning control of the House in November midterm elections, Trump’s wall push has come up against a wall of its own.
This week, an increasingly frustrated president is trying to seize the initiative. On Thursday, he will fly down to the southern border that he described in a prime-time television speech Tuesday as an open door to murderers and other criminals.
“How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job?” Trump said.
“For those who refuse to compromise in the name of border security, I would ask to imagine if it was your child, your husband, or your wife whose life was so cruelly shattered and totally broken,” he said in the nine-minute speech.
Trump claimed Wednesday that his address had been a success.
But Schumer scoffed: “I don’t think he persuaded a soul with his talk last night. It was same old same old — mistruths, divisiveness. Didn’t have the effect he had hoped.”
Washington is now waiting for either side to make a move — and to see whether Trump will dare invoke emergency powers.
“Neither side feel they can cave and not pay a terrible political price,” Republican Senator Marco Rubio said on Fox News.
“Unfortunately, two things caught in the middle are securing our borders, and the men and women in federal government,” he added.
(AFP)