© RFI
Jean Itadi’s African Congress for Progress (CAP) is one of the opposition parties that declined the invitation to participate in the consultation before the legislative elections (illustration image)
In Congo-Brazzaville, legislative and local elections are scheduled in five months, in July 2022. In order to organize them in a peaceful climate according to the authorities, some opposition political parties have been invited by the Ministry of Administration of territory to participate in a consultation from March 3 to 6 in Owando in the north of the country. An invitation rejected by those concerned.
With our correspondent in Brazzaville, Loïcia Martial
It is the Alliance for the Republic and Democracy (ARD) which stepped up to the plate this weekend. For its leader Mathias Dzon, former Minister of Finance, this consultation aims to ” camouflage the idea of a dynastic succession to power which involves strengthening the majority in parliament ».
He declines the invitation, saying that the stakes are already set. ” In Owando, what are we going to do? The electoral lists have already been completely finalized by the Minister of Territorial Administration with the General Directorate of Electoral Affairs; then the contribution of the majority parties. The electoral division is closed, there is nothing more to do. Even the candidates who will be elected (to this or that other constituency) have already been chosen. You are asking us to go to Owando for what. Great politicians and intellectuals like us. So we’ll sit down to say we’ve already approved. You think it’s serious ».
The African Congress for Progress (CAP) of Jean Itadi, another former minister, will not make the trip to Owando either, demanding instead an inclusive dialogue instead of a simple consultation. The reasons for the non-starters are unfounded and somewhat fanciful because the dialogue is permanent in the country, reacted a source close to power.
