Martin Fayulu


Martin Madidi Fayulu is a businessman and lawmaker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is the leader of the Engagement for Citizenship and Development party. On 11 November 2018, he was chosen by seven opposition leaders to be their joint presidential candidate in the 2018 Democratic Republic of the Congo general election. However, within 24 hours, Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, the eventual winner of the 2018 presidential election, and Vital Kamerhe, the other oppositional candidate, rescinded their endorsement of his candidacy and formed their own pact with Tshisekedi as candidate.

Biography

Born in Kinshasa, Martin Fayulu is a former ExxonMobil executive, having worked with the oil company from 1984 until 2003. He served as the company's director-general in Ethiopia as his last post. His involvement in politics began in 1991 when he attended the Sovereign National Conference, which brought together delegates from different regions and organizations to campaign for a multi-party democracy. Mobutu Sese Seko, the authoritarian President of Zaire, allowed the conference to take place but ignored it. Fayulu did not enter politics full time until 2006. In the 2006 and 2011 general elections, he was elected as an MP to the National Assembly. In 2009 he established the Commitment for Citizenship and Development party, which has three MPs, including Fayulu.
Félix Tshisekedi was declared the winner of the December 2018 election, despite election observers' belief that Fayulu had won the vote, in what was seen by Fayulu and his supporters as a deal between Tshisekedi and outgoing President Joseph Kabila. Fayulu challenged the result in the DRC's Constitutional Court, which has been criticised for being staffed primarily by Kabila appointees, and thus by late January 2019 the court ruled that Tshisekedi was the rightful winner and he was sworn in as President. He has continued to remain active in politics since the election, continuing to claim that he was the rightful winner. In late July 2019, he met in Lubumbashi with members of the opposition, including former Katanga Province governor Moïse Katumbi, former Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito, and a representative of former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba. They discussed the future of the opposition and democracy in the DRC.