Martin Fayulu<\/a> says he won the popular vote in 2018 and that Tshisekedi took the presidency illegitimately.<\/p>\nNobel-Prize winner Denis Mukwege’s entry into the race has complicated matters further.<\/p>\n
The surgical gynaecologist and winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, for his work with sexual assault victims, announced his candidacy on October 2.<\/p>\n
He has “moral authority,” said a diplomat in Kinshasa, who declined to be named.<\/p>\n
Still, Mukwege is also little known outside of his native eastern DRC, and is viewed negatively in some quarters as a Western-backed candidate.<\/p>\n
Announcing his presidential bid this month, Mukwege told supporters that “unity of all forces” is needed to change the DRC.<\/p>\n
Mukwege is open to forming alliances, said Moleka, the political scientist, noting that it remains to seen whether other opposition figures are of a similar mind.<\/p>\n
Several analysts argue that should one unifying opposition candidate emerge, the move will likely arrive late in the election campaign.<\/p>\n
The reason for this, according to Moleka, is because that would avoid the government going into “aggressive mode” to defeat the candidate — by fair means or foul.<\/p>\n
Opposition candidates have in recent months decried what they term a narrowing of the ‘democratic space’ in the DRC.<\/p>\n
Opposition politician Cherubin Okenda, a member of Katumbi’s party, was assassinated in Kinshasa in July, for example, under circumstances that remain unclear.<\/p>\n
A leading Congolese journalist has also been imprisoned on charges of disseminating false information about the murder.<\/p>\n
On top of this, most opposition parties are convinced the elections will be fraudulent.<\/p>\n
Moleka said the “electoral process is built on a high level of mistrust” which could lead to disputed results.<\/p>\n
The possibility of instability is “explosive,” he added, given the backdrop of insecurity in the DRC’s east.<\/p>\n
Armed groups plague much of the mineral-rich east of the country, a legacy of regional wars that flared during the 1990s and 2000s.<\/p>\n
One such group, the M23, has captured swathes of territory since launching an offensive in late 2021, and edged close to the eastern city of Goma.<\/p>\n
Two former prime ministers who served under ex-Congolese president Joseph Kabila are also running: Augustin Matata and Adolphe Muzito.<\/p>\n
Another candidate is Noel Tshiani, who ran unsuccessfully in 2018.<\/p>\n
He has championed a proposed law that would limit high political office in the DRC to citizens born to two Congolese parents.<\/p>\n
Controversially, this would rule out Moise Katumbi, whose father was Italian.<\/p>\n
The DRC’s electoral commission is due to publish the list of provisional presidential candidates on October 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DR Congo’s leader Felix Tshisekedi has submitted his candidacy for a second term in office, joining a crowded list of presidential hopefuls including opposition heavyweights and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. The turbulent central African nation, a vast and impoverished country of about 100 million people, is due to hold parliamentary and presidential votes on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"AFP","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"0","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"0","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,33],"tags":[72,1461,1529,1555,1572],"class_list":["post-9448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-africa","category-politics","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","tag-denis-mukwege","tag-martin-fayulu","tag-moise-katumbi","tag-noel-tshiani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}