DRC: UN calls for release of election timetable 'without further delay'

The UN’s special representative for the Democratic Republic of Congo, Maman Sidikou has called on the Independent Electoral Commission to publish an official and consensus-based timetable for the elections “without further delay”.

However the electoral commision spokesman, Jean Pierre Kalamba reacted saying, “it is not up to Sidikou to give orders to the Commission”.

The spokesman of the DRC’s Independent Electoral Commission said the publication of the electoral calendar is to be determined by the Congolese Parliament vote on a new electoral law.

MPs and senators are currently on break and the next parliamentary session will not start until September 15.

The DRC has been in political crisis since last December when President Joseph Kabila failed to step down. Kabila, has been in power since 2001. The constitution bars him from running for president for a third time.

Under a controversial New Year’s Eve deal, President Joseph Kabila agreed to a transitional arrangement enabling him to stay in power pending presidential and legislative elections by the end of 2017.