British Lobbying Firm With Tory Links Sought to Influence DRC Elections for Mining Corp, Report Says

During a troubled 2011 election, Joseph Kabila managed to preserve his presidency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). New revelations suggest that along with internal struggle, he was targeted by a foreign force that later also interfered in Zambia's internal affairs.

CT Group, a lobbying firm that has ties to the UK Conservative party, was preparing a campaign to influence the 2011 DRC elections, as implied by leaked documends acquired by British media.

The company is co-owned by Tory senior strategist Sir Lynton Crosby and is credited as the organizer of electoral campaigns for David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

The DRC project customer was the Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals, which reportedly offered CT Group £1.2 million with a £1 million bonus in case several goals would be reached.

In late 2010, First Quantum’s copper mining permits were revoked by the DRC government. In order to regain them, the mining firm contacted CT Group (then known as CTF Partners), which suggested it could provide “direct support to the most likely person to beat the current president” and “create a climate of opinion” that would help First Quantum to win the legal cases it launched against DRC over the copper mining issue.

Moreover, CTF assured its client that it would “not comment on the client or elections unless explicitly authorised to do so”.

Mark Fullbrook, who until last week was the chief of staff of Downing Street, led CTF at the time of the campaign. He has reportedly denied the accusations of his company being involved in the election, while a spokesperson for the firm has admitted it “supported campaigns in a range of countries” including the DRC, although declaring it had acted according to the law.

Furthermore, three years after the DRC case, CTF participated in another covert campaign, this time in Zambia. Although it is uncertain whether the company's work was again bespoken by First Quantum, the Canadian firm's subsidiary is Zambia's biggest company by revenue, according to First Quantum's report on the African Financials website.

The campaign supposedly included supporting an opposition politician, Hakainde Hichilema, who was considered friendly to the business. His 2015 election performance was better than expected, but he did not become the president until 2021.

During the Zambia campaign, CTF launched a news website “Open Zambia” which still continues its operation.

Although there is no evidence on CTF's actions being illegal, the published data raises questions whether it is ethical to attempt influencing an election in a developing country in order to secure a company's interests.

First Quantum Minerals was founded in 1983 under the name Xenium Resources. Its main product is copper and it has African ventures in the DRC, Zambia and Mauritania. In 2021, the company reported a record annual copper production of 816,000 tonnes, which led to revenues rising to $7.212 billion.

The UK media published the leaked data the same day a court sentenced the trade giant Glencore to a £280 million fine for bribery in five African countries. The interference of foreign companies in African internal affairs remains an acute problem, with such companies as Shell, Eni, DEFEX and British American Tobacco being under trial for implementing corrupt schemes on the continent.