DRC – Formateur appointed

In the Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila has appointed a government formateur with a view to the appointment of a new prime minister following the recent legislative elections. The formateur is Mwando Nsimba.

Given the highly fragmented nature of the party groups in parliament and rivalries within the presidential majority camp, the formation of a stable government will be difficult and will presumably result in a large number of ministers. The formateur has a month to complete the process.

The appointment of an official formateur is standard in a lot of parliamentary systems. In the DRC case, it makes a lot of sense because of the fragmented nature of party groups in parliament and also because DRC has a premier-presidential system. So, the president needs to maximise influence prior to the appointment of the PM, not having the power to dismiss the PM thereafter.

That said, I don’t recall the formateur process being common under semi-presidentialism. In Slovenia recently, the (figurehead) president acted as a de facto formateur. If there are other examples of semi-presidential formateurs, then do please let me know.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *