|
Zaire The Legislature
The Zairian government has, since independence,
included a
legislative branch of government, but its powers have been
steadily
eroded by the presidency. The Fundamental Law, in effect
from 1960
to 1964, created a bicameral legislature, which had
substantial
powers in that it both elected the president, who served
as head of
state, and chose the prime minister and cabinet ministers.
But the
document did not adequately define the division of power
between
the executive and legislative branches and thus
contributed
significantly to the breakdown of public order shortly
after
independence. The 1964 constitution retained the bicameral
parliament and gave it both legislative responsibilities
and the
power to approve the president's appointment or dismissal
of the
prime minister. But after Mobutu's coup in 1965, the
president
increasingly assumed legislative powers. The 1967
constitution
replaced the bicameral parliament with the unicameral
National
Assembly, which had little formal or real power because of
the
power given the president to rule by executive order,
which carried
the force of law.
According to the provisions of the 1974 constitution,
the
National Legislative Council (Conseil National
Législatif--CNL; the
new name for the former National Assembly, adopted in July
1972)
remained one of the five organs of government. But it was
subordinate to the party, the supreme institution of the
state; the
president, who was automatically president of all five
organs of
government; and the president's appointed ministers. The
constitution provided for only limited legislative powers,
in that
members of the CNL, elected to five-year terms, had the
right to
initiate laws "concurrently" with the president.
In reality, the CNL operated within very narrow
boundaries.
Real legislative power was wielded by the Central
Committee of the
MPR, while the CNL was relegated to the subordinate
position of
approving party initiatives. The CNL did, however, serve
as a
lightning rod for the population's resentment of its
treatment by
the regime, particularly after 1977, when multiple
candidatures for
legislative seats were allowed for the first time
(although all
still ran under the banner of the MPR). In the September
1982
legislative elections, for example, only sixty out of 310
members
of parliament were reelected.
The high point of legislative independence had come
earlier, in
the late 1970s. Early in 1977, the CNL had rejected the
budget
submitted to it by the president and denounced excessive
presidential spending. Moreover, the new CNL elected that
year used
questioning of ministers as a mechanism for raising policy
issues.
In 1979 a group of deputies from Kasai-Oriental defied
presidential pressure and affixed their signatures to a
report
charging that the army had been responsible for the
massacre of
approximately 300 diamond miners at Katekalay in
Kasai-Oriental. In
November 1980, these dissident deputies, who became known
as the
Thirteen (their actual number fluctuated from episode to
episode),
published a fifty-one-page open letter to President
Mobutu,
providing a comprehensive critique of Mobutu's autocracy.
The
Thirteen were careful to include in their number
parliamentarians
from various regions, to forestall the charge of
tribalism. Writing
in legal brief style, the authors of the letter
dissociated
themselves from any advocacy of violence, invoking the
constitution
itself as protection for the expression of their views.
Following
their formation in 1982 of a second party, the UDPS, the
Thirteen
were imprisoned, then released under amnesty in May 1983,
with
several later placed under house arrest or exiled. Despite
the
formation of such opposition groups, the banishment of
some members
was a constant reminder to other deputies that no
organized
opposition would be tolerated by Mobutu, however peaceful
their
methods or aims.
The Transitional Act passed in August 1992 created the
HCR to
serve as a legislature, as well as to amend and adopt a
new
constitution and oversee new legislative and presidential
elections. In December 1992, the CNS dissolved itself and
was
succeeded by the HCR under the terms of the Transitional
Act. The
453-member HCR, headed by Archbishop Mongsengwo, was,
however,
never accepted as valid by Mobutu. To prove his point, in
October
1992 he reconvened the old legislature, or CNL, which had
been
dissolved by the CNS. Mobutu established the CNL as a
rival to the
HCR and charged the former with formulating a new draft
constitution.
The political agreement on a new transitional
constitution
reportedly reached by pro-Mobutu and anti-Mobutu forces in
October
1993 created a new 780-member legislature, to which the
government
will be responsible. Encompassing both the HCR and the
CNL, the new
body is to be called the High Council of the Republic
(Haut Conseil
de la République--HCR)-Parliament of the Transition
(Parlement de
la Transition--PT), or HCR-PT. At the end of 1993,
however, no
action had been taken to implement the agreement.
Data as of December 1993
|
