Felix Tshisekedi Tshilombo is one of the main opposition candidates vying for votes in Sunday’s presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The 55-year-old father of five is mostly known for being the son of the late veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, but he insists he is not trying to compete with his father’s reputation.
“I don’t have any ambition to rival my father. He is my master, and you don’t rival the master,” Felix Tshiskedi told the BBC. “But I’m going to try my best to perpetuate his dream, his dream of a country of rule of law, of a better Congo, where our sons and daughters can flourish – that’s what I am pursuing,” he added.
If elected on Sunday, Mr Tshisekedi has said he will make the fight against poverty a “great national cause”. He aims, for example, to increase the average per person income to $11.75 (£9.30) a day, compared to $1.25 today. “It’s really the minimum we can do I think, and the minimum people expect from us,” the candidate told the BBC in an interview in the capital, Kinshasa.
He says his programme can be accomplished over two presidential terms – a period of 10 years – and will cost an estimated $86bn.
