1.
Upper house
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An upper house, sometimes called a Senate, is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. The house formally designated as the house is usually smaller. Examples of upper houses in countries include the UKs House of Lords, Canadas Senate, Indias Rajya Sabha, Russias Federation Council, Irelands Seanad, Germanys Bundesrat, a legislature composed of only one house is described as unicameral. An upper house is different from the lower house in at least one of the following respects, Powers, In a parliamentary system. Therefore, in countries the Upper House votes on only limited legislative matters. Cannot vote a motion of no confidence against the government, while the house always can. In a presidential system, It may have equal or nearly equal power with the lower house and it may have specific powers not granted to the lower house. For example, It may give advice and consent to some executive decisions and it may have the sole power to try impeachments against officials of the executive, following enabling resolutions passed by the lower house. Status, In some countries, its members are not popularly elected, membership may be indirect and its members may be elected with a different voting system than that used to elect the lower house. Less populated states, provinces, or administrative divisions may be represented in the upper house than in the lower house. Members terms may be longer than in the house. Members may be elected in portions, for staggered terms, rather than all at one time, in some countries, the upper house cannot be dissolved at all, or can be dissolved only in more limited circumstances than the lower house. It typically has fewer members or seats than the lower house and it has usually a higher age of candidacy than the lower house. In parliamentary systems the upper house is seen as an advisory or revising chamber. Some or all of the restrictions are often placed on upper houses. No absolute veto of proposed legislation, though suspensive vetoes are permitted in some states, in countries where it can veto legislation, it may not be able to amend the proposals. A reduced or even absent role in initiating legislation, additionally, a Government must have the consent of both to remain in office, a position which is known as perfect bicameralism or equal bicameralism. An example is the British House of Lords, bills can only be delayed for up to one year before the Commons can use the Parliament Act, although economic bills can only be delayed for one month
2.
Palais du Peuple (Kinshasa)
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The Peoples Palace or Palace of the People is the seat of the National Assembly and Senate in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire. It was completed in 1979 with a line of credit from the Peoples Republic of China, the architecture was inspired by the Great Hall of the People designed by Zhang Bo in Beijing. The site also includes the Kinshasa Martyrs Stadium, contracted at the time as the palace. The remaining debt of US$42.3 million was forgiven by the Chinese Government in 1983, laurent Kabila, president of the DRC, had overthrown United States ally Mobutu, who died in exile in Morocco. After his assassination by a bodyguard in January 2001, Kabila lay in state at the Peoples Palace for three days before being interred, in December 2013, famed African rumba musician Tabu Ley Rochereau, sometimes known as the African Elvis, lay in state at the Peoples Palace. They were subsequently attacked with gas and live ammunition by government security forces. At least 42 people were killed in the violence, parliament of the Democratic Republic of the Congo National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Congo Senate of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
3.
Kinshasa
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Kinshasa is the capital and the largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is on the Congo River, once a site of fishing villages, Kinshasa is now an urban area with a 2014 population of over 11 million. It faces Brazzaville, the capital of the neighbouring Republic of the Congo, the city of Kinshasa is also one of the DRCs 26 provinces. Kinshasa is Africas third-largest urban area after Cairo and Lagos, Kinshasa hosted the 14th Francophonie Summit in October 2012. Residents of Kinshasa are known as Kinois or Kinshasans, the aboriginal people are called Humbu and Teke. The city was founded as a trading post by Henry Morton Stanley in 1881. It was named Léopoldville in honour of King Leopold II of Belgium, the post flourished as the first navigable port on the Congo River above Livingstone Falls, a series of rapids over 300 kilometres below Leopoldville. At first, all arriving by sea or being sent by sea had to be carried by porters between Léopoldville and Matadi, the port below the rapids and 150 km from the coast. The completion of the Matadi-Kinshasa portage railway, in 1898, provided a route around the rapids. In 1914, a pipeline was installed so that oil could be transported from Matadi to the upriver steamers in Leopoldville. By 1923, the city was elevated to capital of the Belgian Congo, the town, nicknamed Léo or Leopold, became a commercial centre and grew rapidly during the colonial period. In 1965, Joseph-Désiré Mobutu seized power in the Congo in his coup and initiated a policy of Africanizing the names of people. In 1966, Léopoldville was renamed Kinshasa, for a village named Kinchassa that once stood near the site, the city grew rapidly under Mobutu, drawing people from across the country who came in search of their fortunes or to escape ethnic strife elsewhere. This inevitably brought a change to the ethnic and linguistic composition. In the 1990s, an uprising began, which, by 1997, had brought down the regime of Mobutu. Kinshasa suffered greatly from Mobutus excesses, mass corruption, nepotism, nevertheless, it is still a major cultural and intellectual centre for Central Africa, with a flourishing community of musicians and artists. It is also the major industrial centre, processing many of the natural products brought from the interior. The city has recently had to fend off rioting soldiers, who were protesting the failure to pay them
4.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
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The Democratic Republic of the Congo, also known as DR Congo, DRC, DROC, East Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo is a country located in Central Africa. From 1971 to 1997 it was named, and is still called, Zaire. It is the second-largest country in Africa by area and eleventh largest in the world, the Congolese Civil Wars, which began in 1996, brought about the end of Mobutu Sese Sekos 32-year reign and devastated the country. These wars ultimately involved nine African nations, multiple groups of UN peacekeepers and twenty armed groups, besides the capital, Kinshasa, the other major cities, Lubumbashi and Mbuji-Mayi, are both mining communities. DR Congos largest export is raw minerals, with China accepting over 50% of DRCs exports in 2012, as of 2015, according to the Human Development Index, DR Congo has a low level of human development, ranking 176 out of 187 countries. The country was known officially as the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1965 to 27 October 1971, in 1992, the Sovereign National Conference voted to change the name of the country to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but the change was not put into practice. The countrys name was restored by former president Laurent-Désiré Kabila following the fall of longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997, some historians think that Bantu peoples began settling in the extreme northwest of Central Africa at the beginning of the 5th century and then gradually started to expand southward. Their propagation was accelerated by the transition from Stone Age to Iron Age techniques, the people living in the south and southwest were mostly San Bushmen and hunter-gatherer groups, whose technology involved only minimal use of metal technologies. The development of tools during this time period revolutionized agriculture. This led to the displacement of the groups in the east and southeast. The 10th century marked the expansion of the Bantu in West-Central Africa. Rising populations soon made intricate local, regional and foreign commercial networks that traded mostly in salt, iron. Belgian exploration and administration took place from the 1870s until the 1920s and it was first led by Sir Henry Morton Stanley, who undertook his explorations under the sponsorship of King Leopold II of Belgium. The eastern regions of the precolonial Congo were heavily disrupted by constant slave raiding, mainly from Arab–Swahili slave traders such as the infamous Tippu Tip, Leopold had designs on what was to become the Congo as a colony. Leopold formally acquired rights to the Congo territory at the Conference of Berlin in 1885 and he named it the Congo Free State. Leopolds rėgime began various infrastructure projects, such as construction of the railway ran from the coast to the capital of Leopoldville. Nearly all such projects were aimed at making it easier to increase the assets which Leopold. In the Free State, colonists brutalized the local population into producing rubber, for which the spread of automobiles, rubber sales made a fortune for Leopold, who built several buildings in Brussels and Ostend to honor himself and his country
5.
Politics of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
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Politics of the Democratic Republic of Congo take place in a framework of a republic in transition from a civil war to a semi-presidential republic. On 18 and 19 December 2005, a nationwide referendum was carried out on a draft constitution. Early UN reports indicate that the voting was for the most part peaceful, but spurred violence in parts of the war-torn east. In 2006, many Congolese complained that the constitution was an ambiguous document and were unaware of its contents. This is due in part to the rates of illiteracy in the country. However, interim President Kabila urged Congolese to vote Yes, saying the constitution is the countrys best hope for peace in the future,25 million Congolese turned out for the two-day balloting. According to results released in January 2006, the constitution was approved by 84% of voters, the new constitution also aims to decentralize authority, dividing the vast nation into 25 semi-autonomous provinces, drawn along ethnic and cultural lines. The countrys first democratic elections in four decades were held on 30 July 2006, polling was once again facilitated - yet not run - by UN peacekeepers. From the day King Leopold II established colonial authority in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo to today, the Regime of Marshall Mobutu Sese Seko lasted 32 years, during which all but the first seven years the country was named Zaire. One particularity of the Regime was the claim to be thriving for a system, different from Western. This lasted roughly between the establishment of Zaire in 1971, and the beginning of the transition towards democracy. This was true at the regular peoples level as everywhere else and it had both executive oversight authority, and in practice, binding legislative authority, as it dictated the party platform. The committee was headed by Mobutu, the Vice-President of the committee was essentially the countrys Vice-President, without the succession rights. The Executive Council, known elsewhere as the Government or the Cabinet and this was the executive authority in the country, made of State Commissioners. For a long period of time, Mobutu was the leader of the Executive Council. He eventually started appointing First State Commissioners, with largely coordinating powers, the last First State Commissioner was Kengo Wa Dondo. The Supreme Court, The only seemingly independent branch was the judiciary, but in effect, it was subordinate to a Judicial Council over which the regime had a very strong influence. Every aspect of life was regulated to some degree by the party, most of the petty aspects of the regime disappeared after 1990, and the beginning of the democratic transition
