DRC announces general elections

Elections held in December, says country's electoral body

By Godfrey Olukya

ARU, Democratic Republic of Congo (AA) – The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will vote for a new government during general elections in December, the national electoral body said Sunday.

Corneille Nangaa, president of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), reversed his decision that elections could not be held before mid-2019 and said in a statement that the presidential, legislative and provincial elections will be held on Dec. 31.

The announcement comes a few days after U.S. representative to the UN, Nikki Haley, on a visit to DRC, urged elections to replace the incumbent President Joseph Kabila be held next year.

Presidential elections in DRC were supposed to be held last year and Kabila was to leave office on Dec. 19, 2016.

However, he refused to leave office saying that elections could not take place because most voters had not been registered.

This led to riots, police killed at least 20 people.

Kaynak: