Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-06-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Democratic Republic of Congo counterpart on ensuring that elections in that country are open and transparent.

James Duddridge

I have repeatedly urged the Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Raymond Tshibanda, to ensure that elections in his country are open, transparent and are conducted in line with his country’s Constitution. Most recently I wrote to Mr Tshibanda in April this year to follow-up on my meeting with him in the margins of a UN debate on the Great Lakes region held in March 2016. I also met Mr Tshibanda at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa in January 2016. In all my interactions with representatives of the Congolese Government I have stressed the importance of a peaceful, democratic transition of power in the DRC. My Hon Friend, the Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner (Nick Hurd MP), Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for International Development), visited the DRC in March 2016.