Kabila pressured to hold election after controversial ruling

May 12, 2016

Kabila's supporters want the election delayed for two to four years due to logistical and financial difficulties. But the opposition suspects Kabila is simply planning to amend the constitution to extend his rule.

DR Congo's President Joseph Kabila came under fresh pressure Thursday to hold elections on schedule following a controversial court ruling enabling him to stay in office when his mandate ends late in 2016.

The nine-member Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled that Kabila could remain in a caretaker capacity beyond the expiry of his term in December.

The main Congolese opposition party on Thursday slammed the decision as "a sham", while former colonial power France urged the head of state to prepare elections "in good faith."

"The ruling handed down by the Constitutional Court is a sham, it modifies the constitution," Bruno Tshibala, spokesman for the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), told AFP.

"If the presidential election is not held before the deadline, Mr Kabila must leave on December 19," he said. "We will not allow Mr Kabila to rule indefinitely."

In Paris, France's foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said "the priority must be to actively prepare elections in good faith, as they are the only source of popular legitimacy."

In power since 2001, when he took over on his father's assassination, Kabila was elected president in 2006 and 2011 but is constitutionally barred from standing for a third term.

The court was responding to a request for clarification by the ruling party over Kabila's fate should the polls fail to be held on schedule, as is widely expected.

Kabila's supporters want the election delayed for two to four years due to logistical and financial difficulties.

But the opposition suspects Kabila is simply planning to amend the constitution to extend his rule.

Nadal denounced the "deterioration of the political and security situation" in the vast mineral-rich central African nation.

Just as the controversial ruling was released, thousands of people protested in the second city, Lubumbashi, over the criminal trial of leading opposition figure Moise Katumbi, who is accused of using foreign mercenaries as private guards.

Katumbi, 51, is the former governor of Katanga province and the owner of the prestigious Tout-Puissant Mazembe football club, three-time winners of the African Champions League.

Human rights groups have said the allegations against him are politically motivated and one of France's top lawyers, Eric Dupond-Moretti, told AFP this week he was joining Katumbi's legal team.

Katumbi was an ally of Kabila for a decade but quit the ruling party in November when the president split several provinces, including Katanga. Formerly the size of Spain, it now has been carved up into four separate entities.

 

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