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New DRC Cabinet Prompts Accusations that Kabila's Regime Still Holds Power

James Butty

   WASHINGTON - As the Democratic Republic of the Congo's new president
   unveils his coalition government, opposition members are complaining
   about being left out.

   On Monday, President Felix Tshisekedi announced his cabinet, seven
   months after winning a contested election that landed him in the
   country's highest office. The 65-member cabinet includes 23 appointees
   from Tshisekedi's Direction for Change Party and 42 from former
   President Joseph Kabila's Common Front for Congo coalition. But members
   of the DRC's numerous other political parties are warning that the
   cabinet gives too much power to allies of the former president and not
   enough to opposition voices.

   Emery Kalwira, president of the opposition group Congolese Coalition,
   said that Tshisekedi's predecessor, Kabila, maintains the majority of
   the seats in the government and doesn't want to leave power.

   "He is [Kabila] still the main leader of the DRC and Tshisekedi isn't
   the real president," he told VOA's Daybreak Africa radio program. "That
   is why we want to call all the people to get up and to put them out and
   to begin a good transition with our popular salvation authority."

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