On Sunday, President Joseph Kabila announced he may well run again for the top post of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) government, in the 2023 elections.
Kabila is not participating in the upcoming Dec. 23 elections. These elections have been delayed since 2016 when the president’s mandate originally expired.
The election commission argued elections needed to be delayed because of a lack of resources to conduct voter registration and conflict mainly taking place in the eastern region of the DRC.
Joseph Kabila became president in 2001 after his father, Laurent-Desire Kabila (the third constitutional president) was killed.
In recent years, protests demanding the president’s exit from office have claimed the lives of dozens of Congolese.
The December elections have the potential of becoming the first peaceful transition of power in the country since the DRC’s independence from Belgium in 1960.
However, in recent months, protests demanding the president’s exit from office have claimed the lives of dozens of Congolese. There is a sense in the DRC that delaying the elections gives Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, Kabila’s handpicked favorite the opportunity to win.
Additionally, many have questioned Shadary’s role as an independent candidate, “Opinion polls show little-known Shadary far behind popular leading opposition figures, raising speculation that he is merely there to serve one term before Kabila returns,” according to Al Jazeera.
Kabila’s opposition recently raised a coalition with a single candidate to represent their regime change efforts during the December elections, however, the pact only lasted a few days and supporters took to the streets to protest after its breakdown.