Senator salomon kalonda challenges africa on constitutional coups from addis ababa

From the heart of Addis Ababa, Congolese Senator Salomon Kalonda Idi Della delivered a powerful address this Friday to the Ethiopian Parliament. Speaking at the Parliamentary Forum on Intelligence and Security, which focused on electoral integrity and the state of African democracy, Senator Kalonda used the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a prime example of his concerns.

The legislator from Haut-Katanga asserted that a “constitutional change process” is currently underway in the DRC, designed to enable the sitting President to secure an unconstitutional third term. He highlighted the severe repression faced by citizen movements opposing this reform, stating, “The opposition and civil society have risen up. Citizens have taken to the streets… Protesters have been killed. Blood has once again stained Congolese soil.” Senator Kalonda sharply criticized the international community’s silence on this critical situation, describing it not as neutrality, but as “complicity” in these actions.

Drawing a crucial distinction, Senator Kalonda differentiated between the widely condemned and sanctioned “military coup d’état” and what he termed the more insidious “constitutional coup d’état.” He argued that the latter, though cloaked in a guise of legality—through tailored referendums or judicial systems subservient to the ruling power—is equally illegitimate. “There are no bad coups on one side and good coups on the other,” he declared, urging an end to the asymmetric international response to these forms of power grabs.

The Senator also detailed other systemic issues undermining African elections. He cited the lack of independence of electoral commissions, the targeted disqualification of popular candidates by manipulated electoral courts, and the deliberate internet shutdowns during the announcement of results. He characterized these digital blackouts as an “admission” of the authorities’ lack of confidence in their own proclaimed outcomes, a key point for pan-African journalism to highlight.

To bolster electoral integrity across the continent, Senator Kalonda proposed four key initiatives: the establishment of a permanent African electoral monitoring unit, strategic investment in African digital electoral sovereignty, fostering trust through transparent and inclusive audits, and the implementation of a parliamentary pre-electoral observation protocol that covers the entire electoral cycle, from voter registration to result proclamation. He concluded by connecting the absence of effective democracy to the Congolese mining sector, suggesting it disadvantages Western economic partners against competitors who, in his view, operate without a level playing field in African economy news.