The Democratic Republic of Congo’s electoral commission has said that it is unlikely a presidential vote will be held this year.
The announcement is a violation of a deal that was struck between the government and opposition leaders, allowing President Joseph Kabila to stay in power until the year end.
Kabila’s mandate ended last year, but the failure to hold an election meant he stayed on as president, with opposition groups accusing him of deliberately delaying the vote in order to cling on to power.
The electoral commission last year said it could not conduct the elections due to logistical challenges.
In the deal signed on December 31, President Kabila is barred from trying to change the constitution to allow him stand for a third term.
“The parameters at our disposal give us, more or less, reason to think that, in December, it will probably not be possible to stick to that date,” reuters reports Corneille Nangaa, the electoral commission chief to say.
However, Kabila has said only the electoral commission can schedule the vote once it finishes enrolling millions of voters. In an interview last month with German newspaper Der Spiegel, he also said that he had “promised nothing” in the December deal.
In response to Nangaa’s comments, opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi wrote on Twitter that the commission president “had declared war on the Congolese people.”
President Kabila has been in power since 2001.
