Congo opposition plan anti-3rd term protests:

Kabila keeps nation guesssing further

By Lukmon Akintola

With incumbent President, Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC still holding back on confirming whether he is personally in support of planned constitutional reforms being promoted by his supporters and very close allies and which would enable him run for a 3rd term in office, some opposition groups are calling for yet another round of protests to attempt to force him to come out clean with the nation and help resolve the looming political logjam.

The protest is planned for Saturday, the 19th of November and analysts are saying that at the rate things are going now, care should be taken to ensure that the crisis-plagued country is not thrown into another serious round of tension and conflict.

It will be recalled that the country has been plagued with crisis from 1961 when its first prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba was assasinated, allegedly with the aid of the American Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, on account of his leanings with the Eastern bloc in the Cold War era.

For a long time the country was in the grip of the Mobutu Sese Seko dictatorship and Joseph Kabila, a civilianized soldier, only assumed office after a succession of leaders that had followed the exit of Mobutu.

Now he has served the constitutional limit of two terms with polity watchers saying that the decent thing for him to do now is to step down and allow a brand new president to be elected.

Observers also point out that part of the challenge at the moment is the seeming lack of cohesion within the opposition. While some opposition groups would not want to accept anything less than the president stepping down next month as is constitutionally mandated, others seem to have agreed for the Kabila mandate to be temporarilly extended until more definitive elections could be organised even while asking that as a stop-gap measure, Kabila should form an inclusive Government of National Unity within the week.