DRC: Kinshasa residents react to oppostion move

Residents of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo expressed frustrations on Tuesday, after two Congolese opposition leaders pulled out of a wider deal picking a unified candidate for next month’s presidential election.

Felix Tshisekedi, Vital Kamerhe and other opposition leaders, had agreed to give up their candidacies on Sunday after the Geneva Agreement to back businessman, Martin Fayulu, in the December 23 poll.

Patrice Futi, a Kinshasa resident thinks it would have been ideal to give Fayulu a change in the race to unseat Kabila.
“We need to recognise that these people (the opposition) are fickle, they say one thing in the morning and another in the afternoon. It is sad. It shows immaturity on the part of Tshisekedi.”

Scores of Congolese opposition supporters demonstrated in Kinshasa on Monday against the choice of Fayulu to face President Joseph Kabila’s preferred successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary.

“We should not go back right now otherwise we will lose these elections. The disagreements amongst the opposition is paving the way for the victory of the FCC (Common Front of Congo, the platform of Joseph Kabila),” concluded Mutshabu Sylvin, another Kinshasa resident.

The withdrawal by Tshisekedi and Kamerhe from the agreement has quenched hopes of a united front against Kabila.

December’s election would mark the Central African country’s first peaceful handover of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.