The examination of the electoral disputes of the national legislatures of December 30, 2018 was at the heart of the hearing that the President of the Republic, Felix Tshisekedi, granted yesterday Monday, June 17, to the number 1 of the High Court, Benoît Lwamba, at Cité de l’Union Africaine. During this interview, Fatshi pointed out to his interlocutor that the Court had greatly exceeded the Constitution's time limit of 30 days for dealing with all motions and to make its subsequent judgments.
For Benoît Lwamba, the Constitutional Court had received more than 1240 cases, while it has only seven judges who can sit on this matter. For him, it was humanly impossible to examine all cases with such responsibility and make the stops in record time.
With more than 15,000 candidates registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), for the 500 seats to be filled in the National Assembly, it was therefore obvious that the sixty days were materially insufficient to examine all the appeals brought.
The President of the Constitutional Court, speaking yesterday at the Congolese National Radio and Television (RTNC), also said that the Head of State has provided some information in his possession on these decisions that continue to be the main talk of the town. In this regard, Benoît Lwamba has pointed out that he considers the denunciations, better clarifications received from the President of the Republic, as basic elements to allow judges to compare with the realities of each challenged case.
It is here that Benoît Lwamba, evoking the suspicions of corruption which weigh on judges of the High Court in this same file, promised, without too much precision, the opening of the investigations to make the whole light and dissipate any misunderstanding. At the end of the investigations, the first magistrate of the Constitutional Court guarantees that all those who have actually been guilty of bribery, will be punished in accordance with the law.
(CKS/Yes)