A vote to replace Congo’s president Joseph Kabila might not be possible this year, the head of the electoral commission said. Opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi said it was “a declaration of war on the Congolese people.” Corneille Nangaa, the president of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s electoral commission, said on Sunday that the 12-month deadline since the end of Kabila’s tenure was unlikely to be met for logistical reasons. “The parameters at our disposal give us, more or less, reason to think that, in December, it will probably not be possible to stick to that date,” Nangaa said in an interview on France’s TV5Monde.
Kabila refused to step down at the end of his second elected term last December, sparking protests in which dozens of people died.
In the agreement signed on December 31 between Kabila’s representatives and opposition leaders, Kabila – who has been in power since 2001 – is barred from trying to change the constitution to allow him to stand for a third term.
Full Article: DR Congo opposition decries Kabila election delay as ′declaration of war′ | News | DW | 09.07.2017.