The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has urged the Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Joseph Kabila to hold elections by the end of the year as required by the constitution.
The Congolese government has said there is an unlikelihood that the nation will go to the ballot on time due to logistical reasons.
President Kabila’s opponents have accused him of trying to cling on to power.
Kabila has been in power since 2001, and is barred from running for another term in the poll scheduled for November.
In a resolution to renew U.N. sanctions, the 15-member Security Council emphasized the protection of fundamental freedoms and human rights in order to pave “the way for peaceful, credible, inclusive, transparent and timely elections in the DRC, particularly presidential and legislative elections by November 2016, in accordance with the Constitution.”
The council expressed deep concern at increased restrictions on freedom of expression and on the political space in Democratic Republic of Congo, specifically the recent arrests and detention of political opposition and civil society members.
Presidential hopeful Moise Katumbi was on Wednesday sentenced to three years in jail, albeit in absentia, for illegally selling a property in Lubumbashi, his eastern power base. He is currently out of the country for medical treatment.
