The boycott does not convince all political actors in the Congo. If Pascal Tsaty Mabiala, first secretary of the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS), the first opposition formation in the Congolese National Assembly, has decided not to take part in the March 21 poll, it is not not the same for Guy-Brice Parfait Kolélas, leader of the Union of Humanist Democrats (UDH-Yuki), who asked his activists to register massively on the electoral lists whose revision operation will be officially closed on February 16. He is joined on the starting line of the next presidential election by the independent candidate Albert Oniangué, pastor and ex-colonel of the Congolese army, who wants to be the bearer of a message of restoration of justice and equity.
Guy-Brice Parfait Kolélas enters a second round
At the age of 60, Guy-Brice Parfait Kolélas sets the scene and aspires for the second time to the supreme magistracy. In 2016, he came second in the ballot with 15% of the vote, behind President Denis Sassou N’Guesso reelected in the first round. A result that his support Frédéric Bintsamo alias Pastor Ntumi did not hesitate to challenge by arms by launching a rebellion in the Pool region, seventeen years after the war of the same name. A ceasefire agreement finally put an end to the unrest engendered on December 23, 2017. It was accompanied by a disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) program under the control of the United Nations.
Well known to the Congolese, Guy-Brice Parfait Kolélas is the son of Bernard Kolélas who was Prime Minister in 1997 at the time of the civil war that tore the country apart. He was also from 2007 to 2009 Minister of Fisheries then Minister of Public Service and State Reform. However, before that, he had already had his foot in politics very young while living in France. From 1983 to 1993, he was a member of the French Communist Party (PCF) before turning around a few years later and approaching the National Front, which has since become National Rally (RN). He also assumes his friendship with the former secretary general and then vice-president of this party, Louis Aliot. The latter, in 2015, publicly protested against the referendum on amending the Congolese Constitution.
This Monday, at the headquarters of his party, the Union of Humanist Democrats (UDH-Yuki), Guy-Brice Parfait Kolélas declared that he wanted to “liberate certain fundamental freedoms”. “I want to give hope to the Congolese people because today the Congolese youth are wavering on their foundations”, he said, presenting himself as “the candidate for change”. And to unveil the outlines of his “Perfect Plan for the recovery of the Congo” centered on “the development of the provinces with the establishment of viable entities for the smooth running of the Congo”. “I am fighting so that mothers who sell in the markets have retirement and especially solve the thorny problem of retirees who accumulate many months without a pension”, he assured calling for “to stop the violence” and specifying that “The fight is a fight of ideas”.
Albert Oniangué will experience his political baptism of fire
In this battle to wrest Denis Sassou-Nguesso his chair, Guy-Brice Parfait Kolélas will have to reckon with a brand new opponent in the political arena because he has never been affiliated with any team. His name: Albert Oniangué, 66, whose candidacy was officially declared on 1is February.
This is a real first for this former colonel of the Congolese army, trained at the General Leclerc preparatory military school in Brazzaville. Defining himself as “an ordinary citizen”, Albert Oniangué was nevertheless able to observe the mysteries of power for having been aide-de-camp to the now deceased former president Joachim Yhombi Opango but also of Denis Sassou Nguesso from 1979 to 1992. With the current head of state, he assures that he has no “conflicting relationship”. “He has his project, I have mine,” he maintains, adding: “I am not fighting against anyone. We must stop sterile oppositions. The coming campaign is not a competition ”.
Albert Oniangué, as a good ex-child of the Brazzaville troop, has chosen as his motto “to rise through effort”. “My military education forged my personality”, he confides before continuing that the army (him) instilled discipline, rigor and passion for (his) homeland. Retired colonel, Albert Oniangué embarked on a spiritual path by becoming a pastor in 2000. A path which is not unlike the first president of independent Congo, Father Fulbert Youlou. According to him, this reconversion allowed him to “travel the country”, to have a new look on the Congo and to observe the “collective shipwreck” in which the country is sinking, and of which “the elites are complicit”. Albert Oniangué today makes a bitter observation: “Not a single Congolese will tell you that the situation is positive in the country. The people are suffering. From the smallest family to the top of the state, vice has become virtue. »With the Movement of those committed to the requirements of the new alliance (MEENA) that he founded, Albert Oniangué proposes a« moral revolution »based on social justice. Its objective: “To put an end to old practices” and “restore righteousness” for a real “political change”.
A hell of a challenge in a context in which the bishops of the Congo hold words that are not the most reassuring. “Because of an uncontrolled electoral register with, among other things, deceased persons, and of institutions responsible for elections whose independence has yet to be demonstrated, there is much to fear that the results of these elections will be challenged again. ”
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