The scientist-president overthrown after the Congo's first free election
In 1977 a military tribunal sentenced him to death for complicity in Ngouabi's assassination, and only the intervention of Omar Bongo of Gabon saved him from the firing squad.
A biologist trained in agronomy and genetics who became prime minister of Massamba-Débat's government in 1963 at the age of 32. Under the People's Republic he was sentenced to death for alleged complicity in Ngouabi's assassination, then released into exile in France; at the 1991 sovereign national conference he led the early rounds for transitional prime minister before losing the fourth ballot to Milongo. In 1992 he led the social-democratic UPADS to victory over Sassou Nguesso and became the Congo's first democratically elected president, only to be driven into exile again by the 1997 civil war.
The World Bank official who steered the transition
Two days before the 2002 election he withdrew his candidacy, saying 'the conditions for a transparent vote were not guaranteed.'
A finance technocrat who served as the Congo's first treasurer-general after independence and later as a World Bank executive director. When the one-party system collapsed, the 1991 sovereign national conference elected him transitional prime minister on a fourth ballot, giving him executive power to steer the country toward multiparty elections. After the transition he founded the Union for Democracy and the Republic (UDR-Mwinda) and remained a leading opposition figure against Denis Sassou Nguesso.
The Owando bishop who chaired the National Conference
The 1991 sovereign national conference declared itself sovereign, abolished the People's Republic, and adopted a Fundamental Act for the transition.
A Congolese Catholic bishop and Jesuit priest who led the dioceses of Nkayi and Owando. As one-party rule collapsed, he was elected president of the presidium of the 1991 sovereign national conference and chaired it. When the conference declared itself sovereign and abolished the People's Republic, he headed the transitional Supreme Council of the Republic (CSR), which replaced the national assembly and steered the constitutional transition.
Career timeline
1973Ordained priest in Brazzaville (Jesuit)
1983First bishop of the Diocese of Nkayi
1986–1990Apostolic administrator of Pointe-Noire
1990Bishop of Owando
1991President of the National Sovereign Conference presidium
1991Chairman of the transitional Supreme Council of the Republic (CSR)
2003–2006President of the Congolese Episcopal Conference
Prime minister appointed under Congo's 1992 multiparty constitution
Appointed prime minister on 2 September 1992 with his government named on 7 September, he lost a no-confidence vote to the PCT-URD alliance on 31 October 1992.
Politician of Congo-Brazzaville. A government minister in the late 1960s, he was sentenced to ten years in prison in 1970 over an alleged anti-government plot, tortured in detention, and released in 1971 in poor health into exile in France. He returned with the introduction of multiparty politics in 1990, joined the presidium of the 1991 Sovereign National Conference, and was appointed prime minister by President Pascal Lissouba on 2 September 1992. Defeated by a no-confidence vote of the Congolese Labour Party (PCT) and the Union for Democratic Renewal (URD) on 31 October, he resigned on 11 November. He went into exile in Belgium during the 1997 civil war and died in Brussels on 7 October 2007.
Career timeline
1964–1965President of the Economic and Social Council
1966Secretary of State at the Presidency for agriculture
1968Minister of Agriculture
1969–1970Minister of Public Works, Housing and Transport; dismissed by Ngouabi
1970–1971Sentenced to ten years for alleged complicity in an anti-government plot; imprisoned
1971–1977Exile in France
1991Seconded the presidium of the Sovereign National Conference under Ernest Kombo
1992Elected to the National Assembly for Mbama, Cuvette-Ouest
1992Prime Minister (2 September – 6 December)
1990년대 후반Special Adviser to the President with Minister of State rank, President of the Sociocultural Committee, Minister of National Defense