IRDH denounces pre-election violence – Congo Indépendant

by time news March 7, 2023

March 7, 2023

The State has the obligation to ensure equal protection to all political actors.

Lubumbashi, February 27, 2023. The IRDH invites HE Daniel Aselo Okito, Deputy Prime Minister, in charge of the Interior, Security, Decentralization and Customary Affairs to ensure equal protection for all political actors competing for the elections of December 2023. Under Article 12 of the Constitution, all Congolese are equal and are entitled to equal protection. In this case, the minister should draw his attention to the series of violent acts or incitement to pre-election violence leading to the belief in a deliberate policy targeting executives of the political party “Together for the Republic”.

Indeed, by its political communication of February 25, the political party Together for the Republic denounces the murder of one of its members, assault and battery as well as the attack on the physical integrity against Mr. Salomon Idi Kalonda Della , perpetrated on February 17, in Kindu. Far from being isolated, this criminal act seems to be part of the long campaign of dehumanization and incitement to popular vindictiveness, tending to present the president of this party, the former governor of Katanga, Mr. Moïse Katumbi Chapwe and his supporters as “Congolese of the divided loyalty category”.

The IRDH believes that the ruling party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), having been the victim of such barbarism and discrimination in the past, has a moral obligation to use its influence on the political authority, in order to put an end to it, and to recreate the serenity necessary for the organization of free, peaceful and inclusive elections. History opposes him with Article 8 of the Constitution, for which he had long campaigned, then “eldest daughter of the opposition”. This states that: “The political opposition is recognized in the DRC. The rights linked to its existence, its activities and its struggle for the democratic conquest of power are sacred. […]« .

In short, no individual or group of individuals can claim the exercise of sovereignty recognized exclusively by the people to freely choose its leader, among so many candidates who have fulfilled the legal conditions. The Minister of the Interior has the duty to repress any individual who incites political violence.