DR Congo president told to 'give up' constitution changes
"A nation at war should not have changing the constitution as a priority," said Delly Sesanga, president of the ENVOL party and member of the C64 opposition coalition.
Congolese politician Delly Sesanga (pictured) wants the ruling party to "definitively abandon this project" that could open the way for DR Congo leader Felix Tshisekedi to secure a third term. (FILE/ AFP)
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KINSHASA — A leading opposition figure in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday called on President Felix Tshisekedi to "give up" proposed constitutional changes that could open the way for him to secure a third term.
Elections are two years away, but tensions are already high between the government and its opponents since the ruling-party-majority parliament approved a proposal to extend the presidential mandate.
"A nation at war should not have changing the constitution as a priority," said Delly Sesanga, president of the ENVOL party and member of the C64 opposition coalition.
Tshisekedi, 63, has been in power since 2019 and his second and final five-year term should finish in 2028.
He has not yet decided whether to pass the bill into law.
Sesanga called the move "a gesture that is still not sufficient" and urged the Congolese head of state and the assembly, dominated by the presidential majority, to "definitively abandon this project".
The opposition emerged weakened from the 2023 presidential election, which Tshisekedi won by a wide margin, and analysts are doubtful of its ability to mobilise the public.
Demonstrations initially planned for mid-August were postponed by C64 organisers to September 15.
Rejecting any notion of division among the opposition, Sesanga said that in the DRC, "the main opponent is the misery in which our population lives, insecurity, the lack of jobs for young people."
In mid-July, Kinshasa also announced the organisation of a national dialogue long demanded by the opposition, without specifying its terms.
The proposed constitutional change comes as much of the country is riven by conflict, particularly to the east, where the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group seized swathes of territory last year.
Sesanga has called for the M23 to also take part in a national dialogue to support "peace and reunification", but the Congolese authorities have refused.
Millions of voters in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, whose capitals fell into the hands of the M23 in January 2025, could be prevented from going to the polls in the 2028 presidential election.
"No serious Congolese would accept an election without North Kivu and South Kivu," Sesanga said.
On Sunday, the Swiss government announced that the DRC and M23 had agreed to a fresh roadmap for peace talks in the latest attempt to declare a ceasefire, after previous peace accords failed with fighting continuing on the ground.