Isidore Mvouba - Political Career

Political Career

Mvouba was born at Kindamba, located in the Pool Region, and became a railways engineer, working at the Congo-Ocean Railway (Chemin de fer Congo-Océan) beginning in 1976. Unlike most southerners, he continued to support President Sassou Nguesso when multiparty politics was introduced in the early 1990s. When Sassou Nguesso stood as the PCT's candidate in the August 1992 presidential election, Mvouba served as his campaign director; Sassou Nguesso was badly defeated, placing third in the election. Pascal Lissouba, who won the election and succeeded Sassou Nguesso as President, invited Mvouba to take up a ministerial post in the government formed after the election, but Mvouba refused. Subsequently, on 25 December 1992, he was appointed as Minister of Youth and Sports in the power-sharing government of Prime Minister Claude Antoine Dacosta, which was to serve until a new parliamentary election was held in 1993.

Mvouba was spokesman of the pro-Sassou-Nguesso United Democratic Forces during the June–October 1997 civil war. The civil war resulted in Sassou Nguesso's return to power in October 1997, and Mvouba was appointed as Director of the Cabinet of the Head of State (with the rank of Minister) at the end of the same month. He held that post until being appointed as Minister of Transport, Civil Aviation, and the Merchant Marine on 12 January 1999.

It was announced on 14 February 2002 that Mvouba had been appointed as Sassou Nguesso's campaign director for the March 2002 presidential election. Sassou Nguesso won this election with no meaningful competition. Subsequently, in the government named on 18 August 2002, Mvouba was promoted to the position of Minister of State for Transport and Privatization in charge of the Coordination of Government Action. He became Prime Minister in charge of the Coordination of Government Action and Privatization (although not head of government) in the government named on 7 January 2005. He was appointed as Prime Minister even though the constitution does not provide for that position.

He has been a member of the Political Bureau of the PCT and the first secretary of its youth organization, the Union of the Congolese Socialist Youth (UJSC, Union de la jeunesse socialiste congolaise).

Mvouba was elected to the National Assembly as a PCT candidate from Kindamba constituency in the June–August 2007 parliamentary election, receiving 75.5% of the vote. Following the death of Senate President and PCT Secretary-General Ambroise Noumazalaye on 17 November 2007, Mvouba became Acting Secretary-General of the PCT.

At the time of the June 2008 local elections, Mvouba is President of the National Coordination of the Rally of the Presidential Majority (RMP), the coalition supporting Sassou-Nguesso. After Sassou-Nguesso was re-elected in the July 2009 presidential election, he appointed a new government on 15 September 2009, in which Mvouba's post of Prime Minister was eliminated; Mvouba was instead appointed as Minister of State and Coordinator of the Basic Infrastructure Cluster, in charge of Transport, Civil Aviation, and the Merchant Marine, and he remained the highest-ranking member of the government.

Mvouba remained Acting Secretary-General of the PCT until 2011, when Pierre Ngolo was elected as Secretary-General. Following the July–August 2012 parliamentary election, Mvouba was moved to the post of Minister of State for Industrial Development and the Promotion of the Private Sector on 25 September 2012.