Congo MPs vote Kabila ally National Assembly speaker
Congo MPs vote Kabila ally National Assembly speakerWritten by Joe Bavier
Saturday, April 18, 2009 4:37:29 PM
KINSHASA (Reuters) -- Congolese lawmakers voted in Evariste Boshab, a close ally of President Joseph Kabila, as speaker of the National Assembly early on Saturday, reasserting presidential supporters' hold on the lower house of parliament.
Boshab, once Kabila's private secretary and a co-founder of his political party, replaces Vital Kamerhe, who resigned last month after criticising the president's decision to allow Rwandan troops into eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
"In the name of the leadership of the National Assembly and its members present here, we sincerely congratulate our colleague Evariste Boshab for his election by a crushing majority," said Kamerhe, who presided over the ceremony.
Kabila's Alliance of the Presidential Majority (AMP) political coalition has dominated both houses of Democratic Republic of Congo's parliament since landmark 2006 polls.
The same elections, meant to draw a line under a devastating 1998-2003 war, confirmed Kabila as president of the vast mineral-rich but cash-strapped central African nation.
Congo's five-year conflict sucked in a half dozen African nations and eastern neighbours Uganda and Rwanda backed rebels attempting to overthrow the government in Kinshasa. The war and the humanitarian disaster it sparked have killed an estimated 5.4 million people.
Kamerhe, one of the principle architects of Kabila's 2006 election victory, criticised the president's decision to allow thousands of Rwandan troops to enter Congo in January to stamp out Rwandan Hutu rebel groups.
The move was viewed as a direct affront to Kabila by AMP leaders, who pressured Kamerhe to step down as speaker.
While he has remained within the AMP despite the growing rift with the president, many now expect Kamerhe to be Kabila's chief rival in the next election in 2011.
Last week, he launched a non-partisan movement within parliament in an apparent first step towards creating a political base.
Baudouin Idambituo, a former government minister under Congo's former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and a political ally of Kamerhe, challenged Boshab in Saturday's vote. Some observers believed his candidacy could have capitalised on perceived splits within the AMP.
However Idambituo finished third and Boshab comfortably won the speakership in a first round of voting with 329 out of a total of 484 votes cast.
His closest rival, Francois Mwamba from the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) -- whose leader Jean-Pierre Bemba was Kabila's closest rival in the 2006 election -- won 75 votes. Bemba is on trial in The Hague for suspected war crimes.
Labels: DRC, EVARISTE BOSHAB, JOSEPH KABILA, MPs
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