The Democratic Republic of Congo’s opposition has opposed a proposal by the head of the country’s National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) to postpone the presidential and legislative elections.
CENI president Corneille Nanga on Friday said the commission will file a request with the Constitutional Court to organize elections beyond 2016.
Delly Sessanga, head of the opposition Envol party, said the proposal by CENI president to postpone the elections beyond 2016 was “baseless.”
“It should be understood that the Constitution does not give CENI powers to seek interpretations from the Constitutional Court. I believe the court will declare the request inadmissible,” he said.
Another opposition coalition dubbed G7 condemned CENI for saying it may not organize elections in 2016 as required by the Constitution.
“CENI has become an extension of the government. This is why G7 and its allies will not go to the political dialogue called by President Joseph Kabila,” the group’s coordinator in Haut-Katanga province, Gabriel Kyungu, said.
The president of the Congolese People’s Movement for the Republic Jean Claude Mvuemba called for the immediate resignation of Nanga for “incompetence and usurpation of powers.”
According to CENI’s electoral timetable that was published in February 2015, presidential elections will be held on Nov. 27, 2016.
