HISTORY OF HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGO

This post defines the House of Representatives, discusses the history of the house, the parliament and its electoral system.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DEFINED:

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Congress and is often referred to as “the House”.  It is the lower chamber of Parliament. The number of representatives each state has in the House of Representatives is proportional to its population

HISTORY:                

Politics of the Democratic Republic of Congo take place in a framework of a republic in transition from a civil war to a semi-presidential republic.

On 18 and 19 December 2005, a successful nationwide referendum was carried out on a draft constitution, which set the stage for elections in 2006. The voting process, though technically difficult due to the lack of infrastructure, was facilitated and organized by the Congolese Independent Electoral Commission with support from the UN mission to the Congo (MONUC). Early UN reports indicate that the voting was for the most part peaceful, but spurred violence in many parts of the war-torn east and the Kasais.

In 2006, many Congolese complained that the constitution was a rather ambiguous document and were unaware of its contents. This is due in part to the high rates of illiteracy in the country. However, interim President Kabila urged Congolese to vote ‘Yes’, saying the constitution is the country’s best hope for peace in the future. 25 million Congolese turned out for the two-day balloting. According to results released in January 2006, the constitution was approved by 84% of voters. The new constitution also aims to decentralize authority, dividing the vast nation into 25 semi-autonomous provinces, drawn along ethnic and cultural lines.

The country’s first democratic elections in four decades were held on 30 July 2006.

From the day of the arguably ill-prepared independence of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the tensions between the powerful leaders of the political elite, such as Joseph Kasa Vubu, Patrice Lumumba, Moise Tshombe, Joseph Mobutu and others, jeopardize the political stability of the new state. From Tshombe’s secession of the Katanga, to the assassination of Lumumba, to the two coups d’état of Mobutu, the country has known periods of true nationwide peace, but virtually no period of genuine democratic rule.

PARLIAMENT OF DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

The parliament of the Democratic Republic of Congo consists of two chambers;

• The Senate (upper chamber)
• The National Assembly (lower chamber)

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY (Lower chamber)

The National Assembly is the lower house and main legislative political body of the Parliament of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was established by the 2006 constitution.

It is located at the People’s Palace (French: Palais du Peuple) in Kinshasa.

The most recent National Assembly was sworn in on January 28, 2019.

By 28 May 2021, 32 members of the DRC parliament, making up 5% of the MPs, died due to COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

ELECTORAL SYSTEM

The National Assembly is elected every five years by universal suffrage. For the 2018 elections the 500 seats of the assembly were apportioned among 181 electoral districts based on voter registration numbers. This resulted in 62 members elected in single member constituencies by first-past-the-post and the remaining 438 members elected in multi-member constituencies by open list.

PRESIDENTS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

The president of the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the presiding officer in the National Assembly.

Below is a list of presidents of the Chamber of Representatives: