Evariste Boshab

President, National Assembly

Date of Birth: 12/01/1956
Place of Birth: Mweka

Evariste Boshab, Secretary General of the ruling Parti du Peuple pour la Reconstruction et la Démocratie, has become an essential contact for Congo-courting diplomats, particularly those from Asia’s one-party states, China and North Korea. As chief legislator, Boshab held talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Bangguo, in Beijing in July 2009. That visit’s fruits became clear in January when Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Department, visited Boshab in Kinshasa. Reports emerged that the CCP would train PPRD functionaries, help it establish a party school and – perhaps further out of the CCP’s traditional skill set – assist with elections.

In 2008, Boshab was Chairman of Kinshasa’s preparatory committee for the 16 February celebrations of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s birthday. North Korea built the monument of former President Laurent-Désiré Kabila that stands before the Place de la République; more recently, Korean advisors trained the Congolese military. On 11 January, Boshab met with Pyongyang’s new Ambassador, Ri Myong- chol, to discuss cooperation between the two parliaments.

Boshab holds a doctorate in public law from Belgium’s Université Catholique de Louvain. A professor of constitutional law at the Université de Kinshasa, Boshab was President Joseph Kabila’s Chief of Staff during the transition period that followed the Second Congo War. He has led President Kabila’s PPRD, which heads the coalition government, since 2007.

The party pressured the former Speaker, Vital Kamerhe, to step down after he had questioned Kabila’s decision to allow Rwandan troops into eastern Congo to conduct joint operations against Hutu-backed militias. Boshab was elected as Kamerhe’s successor in April 2009.