Bernard Tchibambelela

Bernard Tchibambelela (born 14 June 1946) is a Congolese politician. He is a member of the Congolese Movement for Democracy and Integral Development (MCDDI) and has been the Second Vice-President of the National Assembly of the Republic of the Congo since 2007.[1]

Contents

Political career during the 1980s and 1990s

Tchibambelela, a member of the Lari ethnic group,[2] was born in Brazzaville in 1946. He received degrees in economics, rural law, and agronomic engineering, and he headed banks in Congo-Brazzaville and France;[1] he was Director of Rural Credit in Congo-Brazzaville for a time.[2] During the single-party rule of the Congolese Labour Party (PCT), Tchibambelela was a member of the PCT;[1] he was considered a protegé of Pierre Moussa, the Minister of Planning and Finance, and was elected to the PCT Central Committee at the PCT's Fourth Ordinary Congress, held on 26–31 July 1989.[3] The PCT regime was forced to introduce multiparty politics in 1990,[4] and Tchibambelela joined the MCDDI, a new party led by Bernard Kolélas, in 1991.[1] The MCDDI drew its main support from members of the Lari ethnic group, like Tchibambelela, as well as the Bakongo, and it was the dominant party in the Pool Region.[5]

In the June–July 1992 parliamentary election, Tchibambelela was elected to the National Assembly as the MCDDI candidate in the second constituency of Goma Tsé-Tsé, located in the Pool Region.[1] After the election, the MCDDI and six other parties formed the Union for Democratic Renewal (URD), an opposition coalition, on 27 August 1992.[6] The PCT—which had briefly formed an alliance with Pascal Lissouba and his Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS)—then defected to the opposition, and together the URD–PCT alliance held a parliamentary majority.[5]

With its parliamentary majority, the URD–PCT alliance was able to elect the candidates of its choice to the top posts in the National Assembly. In the vote, held on 24 September 1992, the PCT's André Mouélé was elected as President of the National Assembly, while Tchibambelela was elected as its First Vice-President.[7] Tchibambelela held that position for only two months, however;[1] President Lissouba was unwilling to cooperate with an opposition-controlled National Assembly and dissolved it on 17 November 1992.[8][9]

President Lissouba's dissolution of the National Assembly necessitated a new parliamentary election, which was held in May–June 1993.[5] Tchibambelela was re-elected to his seat from Goma Tsé-Tsé,[1] but the URD–PCT alliance was narrowly defeated by the pro-Lissouba coalition.[5] The opposition furiously contested the official results of the 1993 election, and serious political violence followed. Amidst the violence, Tchibambelela was Vice-President of the ad hoc Parliamentary Commission for Peace.[10] An agreement signed on 30 January 1994 facilitated a gradual return to peace.[11]

Tchibambelela remained a Deputy in the National Assembly until October 1997, when rebel forces supporting Denis Sassou Nguesso captured Brazzaville at the end of the 1997 civil war.[1]

Political career since 2007

Tchibambelela, a member of the National Committee of the MCDDI,[12] was elected to the National Assembly in the June 2007 parliamentary election as the MCDDI candidate in the Mbanza-Ndounga constituency of the Pool Region;[1][13] he won the seat in the first round with 60.98% of the vote.[13] On 4 September 2007, when the National Assembly held its first meeting of the new parliamentary term, he was elected as Second Vice-President of the National Assembly,[1][14] receiving 120 votes from the 129 deputies who voted.[14] He was additionally assigned responsibility for the National Assembly's relations with the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie.[15]

As President of the Association of Parliamentarians of the Pool, Tchibambelela released a statement in early July 2009 affirming that all of the Pool's parliamentarians supported President Sassou Nguesso's bid for re-election in the July 2009 presidential election.[16]

Tchibambelela published a book, Le Commerce mondial de la faim : stratégie de rupture positive au Congo-Brazzaville, through L'Harmattan in October 2009. The book discussed the problem of hunger in the developing world and Tchibambelela's ideas for solving the problem in Congo-Brazzaville.[17]

Bernard Kolélas died in November 2009, and Tchibambelela was subsequently considered one of the main potential contenders for the party leadership, along with Kolélas' son Guy Brice Parfait Kolélas.[18]

Personal life

Tchibambelela was a widower by 2007 and had four children at that time.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Willy Mbossa and Roger Ngombé, "Qui sont les nouveaux membres du bureau de l'Assemblée nationale ?", Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 8 September 2007 (French).
  2. ^ a b Congo-Brazzaville: dérives politiques, catastrophe humanitaire, désirs de paix (1999), Karthala Editions, page 95 (French).
  3. ^ Yearbook on International Communist Affairs (1990), page 12.
  4. ^ John F. Clark, "Congo: Transition and the Struggle to Consolidate", in Political Reform in Francophone Africa (1997), ed. John F. Clark and David E. Gardinier, pages 67–68.
  5. ^ a b c d Clark, "Congo: Transition and the Struggle to Consolidate", pages 70–73.
  6. ^ Joachim Emmanuel Goma-Thethet, "Alliances in the political and electoral process in the Republic of Congo 1991–97", in Liberal Democracy and Its Critics in Africa: Political Dysfunction and the Struggle for Social Progress (2005), ed. Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo, Zed Books, page 111.
  7. ^ Gaston-Jonas Kouvibidila, Histoire du multipartisme au Congo-Brazzaville: Les débuts d'une crise attendue, 1992–1993 (2000), L'Harmattan, page 193 (French).
  8. ^ "Dec 1992 – New government", Keesing's Record of World Events, volume 38, December 1992, Congo, page 39,227.
  9. ^ Africa Research Bulletin: Political Series, volumes 28–29 (1992), page 10,780.
  10. ^ Goma-Thethet, "Alliances in the political and electoral process in the Republic of Congo 1991–97", page 116.
  11. ^ Clark, "Congo: Transition and the Struggle to Consolidate", pages 74–75.
  12. ^ "Comité national du MCDDI nommé par Bernard Kolelas", Congopage.com, 10 March 2006 (French).
  13. ^ a b "Elections législatives : les 44 élus du premier tour", Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 2 July 2007 (French).
  14. ^ a b "Bureau de l'Assemblée nationale issu de élections législatives de 2007", Congo-Media, 4 September 2007 (French).
  15. ^ "Les bureaux des commissions permanentes ont été enfin élus", La Semaine Africaine, N° 2729, 21 September 2008 (French).
  16. ^ "Election présidentielle - Les parlementaires du Pool soutiennent Denis Sassou N'Guesso", Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 8 July 2009 (French).
  17. ^ Jean Dany Ebouélé, "Bernard Tchibambelela publie Le Commerce mondial de la faim : stratégie de rupture positive au Congo-Brazzaville", Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 23 October 2009 (French).
  18. ^ Thierry Noungou, "Le Mouvement congolais pour la démocratie et le développement intégral au centre de tous les regards", Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 6 January 2010 (French).
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