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Do we like Félix Tshisekedi?

Our score: 4 out of 10. A real peace push and school reforms sit next to a contested bid to stay in power and rights groups' reports of arrests of critics.

Félix Tshisekedi grew up in the shadow of his father Étienne, who founded the UDPS party to oppose the dictator Mobutu. At 19 he followed his father into internal exile in a Kasai village, and at 22 he went into exile in Belgium. In 2011 he was elected a deputy but refused to take his seat, and in 2016 he turned down a prime ministerial job under Joseph Kabila.

He took the presidency in 2019 as the UDPS candidate, with 38.57 per cent in the electoral commission's provisional results. The question now is whether he will leave on time. In 2024 he called the constitution “outdated” and floated a rewrite. Human Rights Watch reported that rights groups and the opposition fear he wants to get round the two-term limit, and he said the people would decide.

In May 2026 he told a press conference he had not sought a third term, but would accept one if people wanted it. He also said elections in 2028 might not happen if the war in the east drags on. The opposition called that a power grab, and Reuters reported the fury that followed.

Parliament then passed a referendum bill. The AP reported it lets the president change the constitution if “major dysfunction” paralyses state institutions, which critics say would reset his term count. At a protest against it in Kinshasa, opposition leaders including Martin Fayulu were injured in clashes. In August he asked parliament to reconsider the law, and the government calls it a broader institutional reform.

Human Rights Watch alleged in May 2026 that authorities were increasingly harassing and arbitrarily detaining journalists, activists and opposition members. It reported police tear gas at a Kinshasa protest and a military-court conviction of three Lucha activists. Its 2024 report said at least three politicians and two rights defenders were arbitrarily detained. The page carried no government response.

On Kabila, Tshisekedi said in February 2025 that his predecessor financially backed the M23 rebels. His government then banned Kabila's party, and in September 2025 a military court sentenced Kabila to death in absentia for treason. Kabila's side calls it a political trial, and a Goma-based legal analyst quoted by Al Jazeera made the same criticism. The charges are Kabila's alleged links to M23, which he has not answered in court.