a change of law initiated by President Kabila, the proportional voting system for elections to the National Assembly will be replaced for the 2011 poll by a first-past-the-post system and the Presidential poll will be conducted in a single round, rather than the current two-round contest. In an article in the UK’s Prospect Magazine in January 2011, Mulangala stated that”Kabila’s reforms threaten to weaken consensus politics in the DRC. After ten years of civil war and a further ten of brittle peace, consensus is crucial and minorities must never be allowed to wield power over the majority”. He also used the article to confirm that the opposition had, however, secured seats in a newly constituted electoral commission to oversee the elections, and that “the importance of a balanced electoral commission cannot be overstated: it was just such a body that finally called the election for opposition leader Ouattara in Cote d’Ivoire”. During a visit to London in May 2011 Mulangala was invited to address the Institute of Economic Affairs on the future of the Mining and Extractives industry in DRC and how to bring transparency to this crucial industry (the IEA website hosts an MP3 recording of the speech. During the same visit, Mulangala was interviewed by David Frost on his international interview programme Frost Over the World on the al-Jazeera English news network, becoming the first politician from the Democratic Republic of Congo to be interviewed by the renowned interviewer. Political views and positions Throughout his political career, Mulangala has present consistently centrist and liberal views, first in opposition to the Mobutist regime and then to both Laurent-Desire Kabila and Joseph Kabila’s governments. His politics have consistently espoused: Citizen-ownership schemes for businesses on a similar model to Black Economic Empowerment schemes in South Africa Equal rights for women Support for foreign investors to provide their DRC employees with equity/ ownership of local subsidiaries Support for the UN mandated forces in Eastern Congo, in order support security in the region, to help guarantee a free and fair election in 2011 Support for an international transparency and certification initiative for minerals (similar to the Kimberley Process for diamonds), and for this to be monitored in the Eastern Congo by the UN in conjunction with the DRC Government Guaranteed basic education for all DRC citizens up to the age of 15 A programme of national works to improve sanitation and guarantee the