Is Jean-Pierre Bemba a step closer to becoming President of DR Congo?

One month after the International Criminal Court reversed his conviction for war crimes, Jean-Pierre Bemba, the Former Democratic Republic of Congo Vice President has been nominated as his party’s candidate for upcoming presidential elections.  The Movement for the Liberation of Congo, MLC, named Bemba last Friday in a statement issued at the end of the party’s two-day congress. The DRC’s Presidential and legislative elections which are long overdue but have been postponed severally are due to take place on December 23. ICC appeal judges overturned Bemba's 2016 conviction, when he was found guilty of two counts of crimes against humanity and three counts of war crimes. He had been sentenced to 18 years in jail. The Hague-based ICC ruled Bemba, 55-years-old, could not be criminally liable for the crimes committed by his troops in the Central African Republic (CAR) in 2002 and 2003. After his release from jail, Bemba has been residing in Belgium with his family. The Court requested Belgium to allow Bemba to stay in Belgium, where his family lives, following his provisional release.

"We unanimously decided to renew Senator Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo as national president of the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo for a five-year term and to name him as our candidate for the presidential election of December 23, 2018," said the party's Jean Jacques Mamba.

Bemba expected to return to the DR Congo in July ahead of Presidential elections

Credit: AFP Photo John Wessels / Supporters of Jean-Pierre Bemba celebrate his ICC war crimes acquittal June 8, 2018, DR Congo.

Credit: Getty Images / Political rivals (left) President Joseph Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba

According to news reports, the DRC will give Bemba a diplomatic passport to allow him to return to the country. Bemba is expected to return sometime this month. The ICC is due to issue a ruling in a separate case in which he was sentenced to a one-year in jail and fined 300,000 euros ($350,000) in 2017 for bribing witnesses during his main war crimes trial. However, Bemba has already spent a decade behind bars, and legal experts expect him to be released definitively if this time is taken into account, according to France24.

The BIG QUESTION is will Bemba make a bid to become the next president of the conflict-ridden DRC? Bemba still remains highly popular in the DR Congo, and is seen as a serious competitor for Kabila in the upcoming presidential election planned for December 23. Many political observers are of the opinion the time is ripe for someone like Bemba to assume leadership in the violent-ridden DR Congo. The central African nation has been hit by a wave of protests since President Joseph Kabila refused to step down at the end of his term in December 2016. The DRC has been engulfed in a crisis with Kabila apparently intent on clinging to power despite the end of his constitutionally mandated two terms in office December 19, 2016. Elections, originally scheduled for November 2016, were cancelled after the election commission cited logistical and financial hurdles. Kabila formed a transitional government and promised elections would be held in December 2018. 

"The current government in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is engaging in atrocity-like behavior,"  former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Herman J. Cohen wrote.   "The DRC nation is in the midst of a pre-electoral constitutional crisis. Jean-Pierre Bemba is the recognized political leader of the northwestern region, through his MLC political party."

Leading exile opposition politician Mo?se Katumbi currently banned from DR Congo

Credit: mg.co.za / DRC opposition politician Mo?se Katumbi

Exiled millionaire politician Katumbi was the favored politician to become DR Congo's next president if elections are held later this year. However, with the the potential return of Bemba to DR Congo, that is no longer the case. Katumbi told the BBC that current President Kabila "is scared today for my return" since "his mandate is finished". Katumbi is currently in exile in Europe since he was convicted of illegal property selling and sentenced to three years in prison, in absentia. He denies he did anything wrong and says he still wants to run for president at the next election in DR Congo, which is due to take place in 2017 or 2018. Katumbi said last month he was in favour of a coalition that could include rival opposition figure Bemba.

Felix Tshisekedi emerges as other major opposition politician in DR Congo

Credit: Belga AFP / Eric Lalmand/ Felix Tshisekedi took over as leader of the opposition movement after his father Etienne Tshisekedi – a long-time opponent of Kabila – died in February 2017 in Belgium, aged 84.

Growing concern President Kabila will not step down as promised in December 2018

Credit: AFP / DR Congo President Kabila.

Meanwhile, current DR Congo President Joseph Kabila abruptly cancelled a meeting planned for this week with the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and the African Union Chair Moussa Faki. Kabila sent a message this weekend that he was “no longer available” for the meeting – just before the top diplomats were due to travel to Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, according to Human Rights Watch.

"Kabila’s last-minute cancellation – and his unwillingness to meet other regional and international leaders in recent weeks – does little to allay concerns that he does not intend to step down from office, in accordance with Congo’s constitution, and allow credible elections to be held," Human Rights Watch.

Bemba, the son of a wealthy businessman, had an early life of privilege in DR Congo

Credit: BBC.com / Getty Images / Jean-Pierre Bemba

Young Bemba was schooled in Belgium, DRC's former colonial master, and went on to take over family businesses, using his popularity in the capital Kinshasa to build his wealth and expand into sectors such as mobile phones, air freight and television, according to a BBC report. Bemba spent his youth between the Belgian and Congolese capitals - Brussels and Kinshasa - and the small remote town of Gbadolite in northern Democratic Republic of Congo known as "Versailles in the Jungle"-BBC. This was the home and last refuge of the late Congolese leader Mobutu Sese Seko. Bemba's father, the successful businessman Bemba Saolona, was very close to the former dictator.

Bemba's return to Congolese politics will definitely shake up the political campaign ahead of elections, and the potential for violence looms large, if Kabila resists stepping down. But some political observers believe the charismatic Bemba may just pull it off if elections are held to be the next president of the Congo. Time will tell.