Politics

Confusion over policy as US begins Syria withdrawal

12, January 2019

Confusion over policy as US begins Syria withdrawal 0

The United States has begun withdrawing from Syria, a military spokesman said Friday, as international observers struggled to make sense of the future of US policy in the war-torn nation.

The US-led coalition “has begun the process of our deliberate withdrawal from Syria”, said Colonel Sean Ryan, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the multinational force battling the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. Coalition member nations have not yet issued a response to the US announcement.

“Out of concern for operational security, we will not discuss specific timelines, locations or troops movements,” Ryan said in a statement to the AP. The timeline for any Syria withdrawal has long been a matter of confusion.

President Donald Trump’s December 19 tweeted announcement that the US would withdraw the approximately 2,000 US troops in Syria within 30 days stunned US allies and even those within the administration.

The decision was a surprise even for the US special envoy to Syria, Joel Rayburn, NBC News reported, citing someone familiar with the situation. Rayburn had been scheduled to speak at an event on Syria policy the very morning Trump tweeted his announcement, forcing Rayburn’s appearance to be cancelled less than half an hour before it was scheduled to begin.

Trump’s move also prompted the swift resignations of both Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State group.

After coming under criticism for the abruptness of his decision, Trump extended the pullout target from one month to several, later abandoning the idea of a deadline at all.

In his first Cabinet meeting of the New Year on January 2, Trump denied he had ever suggested a timetable.

“I never said fast or slow,” Trump said of the US withdrawal during the televised Cabinet meeting. “Somebody said four months, but I did not say that either.”

Analysts have warned that the US is unlikely to be able to achieve any of its goals in Syria without a significant troop presence. Others have warned of the risks of leaving the Kurds, the US allies whose YPG fighters have helped lead the fight to expel the Islamic State group from much of the country, without sufficient backup from US forces to stave off a promised offensive from Turkey.

Ankara considers Kurdish forces adversaries because of their links to the PKK separatist group active inside Turkey. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the far-right media outlet Newsmax that part of the US mission was still “ensuring that the Turks don’t slaughter the Kurds”.

Over the next few days Trump sought to underscore that there was no rush, telling reporters at the White House on January 6 that “we are pulling back in Syria. We’re going to be removing our troops. I never said we’re doing it that quickly.” 

“We won’t be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone,” he added, using another acronym for the Islamic State group.

Damage-control diplomacy

Trump himself tried to assuage fears with a Monday tweet denying any change in policy. “We will be leaving at a proper pace while at the same time continuing to fight ISIS and doing all else that is prudent and necessary!” Trump wrote.

But Trump’s initial announcement had already sent administration officials into a new round of damage control, rushing to reassure allies that the pullout will not be swift or sudden.

Shortly after the start of the year, Secretary of State Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton embarked on Middle East tours aimed at bolstering regional alliances. Bolton was dispatched to Israel and Turkeywhile Pompeoset off on a nine-nation trip to Jordan, Iraq and Egypt before heading to the Gulf to visit Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait.

Speaking in Israel on January 6, Bolton said US troops would remain in northeastern Syria until Islamic State forces are routed and Kurdish fighters were ensured of protection.

Bolton said there were “conditions” that must be met before the US pullout that could take months or even years.

“There are objectives that we want to accomplish that condition the withdrawal,” Bolton told reporters in Jerusalem, including the defeat of the estimated 17,000 remaining IS fighters in Syria.

Turkey must “meet the president’s requirement that the Syrian opposition forces that have fought with us are not endangered”, he said, making a clear reference to the Kurds.

The remarks sparked outrage from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who called them a “serious mistake” and later appeared to snub Bolton, cancelling their meeting mere moments before it was about to begin.

But those sentiments were echoed by Pompeo, speaking from the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq after a visit to Baghdad.

“These have been folks that have fought with us and it’s important that we do everything we can to ensure that those folks that fought with us are protected,” Pompeo said in Erbil.

In a speech in Cairo on Thursday, Pompeo tried to convince US allies that policy in Syria had not shifted focus. The “complete dismantling” of the Islamic State group remains a US goal, he said, as does curtailing Iranian influence in Syria.

“Let me be clear: America will not retreat until the terror fight is over,” Pompeo said.

But even as officials criss-crossed the Middle East in a bid to clarify the US role in the region, analysts and politicians at home remained confused about the future of the US’s policy in Syria. “It is policy-making in reverse,” Aaron Stein, director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Middle East Program, told the Wall Street Journal.

Officials have been left attempting to make sense of the president’s orders on their own, resulting in a disjointed – and at times, self-serving – approach. “They are all trying to interpret the president’s directives in ways that comport with their own pet national-security projects, and not focused on coming up with one set of plays that each element of the government can work together on to implement,” Stein said.

Meanwhile, a UNHCR spokesman told a press conference on Friday that the UN is concerned over reports of new fighting in eastern Syria.

“We are deeply concerned about the situation in the northeast of the country,” said senior spokesman Andrej Mahecic. “There are reports of mounting civilian casualties, including many women and children, and a large-scale civilian displacement amid renewed fighting in the Hajin enclave in Deir Ezzor governorate in the east of Syria.”

But those hoping for some clarity on US Middle East policy may have to wait a bit longer. Pompeo told Fox News while in Cairo that an international conference focusing on Iran and the Middle East would take place in Poland on February 13-14.

Culled from France 24

12, January 2019

US: Democrat Tulsi Gabbard says she will run for president in 2020 0

Democratic US Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii said in remarks aired by CNN on Friday that she will run for president in 2020, becoming the latest member of her party to pursue a challenge to Republican President Donald Trump.

“I have decided to run and will be making a formal announcement within the next week,” Gabbard, a liberal 37-year-old Iraq War veteran as well as the first Hindu and first Samoan-American elected to the US Congress, told CNN.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts on Dec. 31 announced she had formed an exploratory committee for a White House run in what is expected to be a crowded Democratic primary field before the November 2020 presidential election.

Gabbard said “the issue of war and peace” would be the main focus of her campaign.

Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Democratic presidential field could eventually include Senators Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as former Vice President Joe Biden. Julian Castro, former President Barack Obama’s housing secretary, also formed an exploratory committee in December.

In the race to pick a candidate to run against Trump, Democrats will grapple with the tension between the party’s establishment and liberal wings that flared during the 2016 state-by-state nominating contests between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who ran under the Democratic banner.

Gabbard made headlines in 2016 by quitting a leadership post at the Democratic National Committee over the party’s decision to limit the number of debates between Clinton and Sanders, with analysts believing fewer debates benefited Clinton. Clinton ultimately won the Democratic nomination but lost to Trump.

The congresswoman then endorsed Sanders for president, becoming one of the few members of Congress to do so. Gabbard remains popular with some liberals but will have serious competition with other candidates on the left flank of the party.

Gabbard has also drawn criticism for secretly meeting with Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, whose removal from power she opposes, during a 2017 trip to the war-ravaged country.

PressTV- US congresswoman in 'secret' visit to Damascus

Iowa holds the first presidential nominating contest in 13 months. Warren informally kicked off the 2020 Democratic presidential nominating fight on visit last weekend to Iowa, condemning the corrupting influence of money on politics and lamenting lost economic opportunities for working families.

(Source: Reuters)

11, January 2019

Congo-Kinshasa’s Catholic Church says its election tally shows different winner 0

DR Congo’s powerful Catholic Church says election results tallied by its observers do not match official results announced on Thursday by the country’s election commission, which named Felix Tshisekedi as the surprise winner.

In a pre-dawn announcement, the election commission named Tshisekedi, son of the country’s late veteran opposition leader, as provisional winner of the bitterly-contested December 30 vote – a surprise result his main opponent promptly denounced as an “electoral coup”.

Just hours later, the Church said election results tallied by its 40,000 observers scattered across the country showed a different winner, without specifying who.

“We see that the result of the presidential election as published by CENI (the electoral commission) does not correspond with the data collected by our observer mission from polling stations and counting centres,” said Father Donatien Nshole, spokesman for the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO), which represents the country’s Catholic bishops.

At stake is political stewardship of the notoriously unstable central African nation which has never known a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. Runner-up Martin Fayulu, the pre-election favourite, said the results announced on Thursday do “not reflect the truth of the ballots”, urging the Congolese to “rise as one man to protect victory”.

In an unusually blunt comment on a foreign election, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also waded into the controversy, describing the results as “not consistent” with observers’ reports. He added: “The Catholic Church of Congo did its tally and announced completely different results.”

Last week CENCO called on the election commission to publish results “in keeping with truth and justice”, adding that data in its possession pointed to a clear winner. The United States on Thursday demanded “clarification” over the result, stopping short of recognising Tshisekedi as the winner.

“The National Independent Electoral Commission has announced provisional results, but we await clarification of questions which have been raised regarding the electoral count… We urge all stakeholders to remain calm as the process continues,” State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino said in a statement.

The last two elections in 2006 and 2011, both of which were won by incumbent Joseph Kabila, were marred by bloodshed, and many fear a repeat of the violence if there is any sense the result has been fixed.

The Catholic Church has long been pressing for the departure of Kabila, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 2001 and who has stayed in power as caretaker leader even though his second and final elected term ended in December 2016.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP)

Cameroon Ranked Among The Worst Democratic Countries in Africa

11, January 2019

Cameroon Ranked Among The Worst Democratic Countries in Africa 0

A new Democracy Index published by the Economist, a renowned magazine, has placed Cameroon among the least democratic countries in Africa. In the Magazine report, Cameroon was equally ranked among the world’s top twenty most authoritarian states.

The Democracy Index based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. Based on its scores on a range of indicators within these categories, each country is then itself classified as one of four types of regime: “full democracy”, “flawed democracy”, “hybrid regime” and “authoritarian regime”.

According to the report, Cameroon performed poorly in all four categories measured. It indicates that Biya’s country has one of the worst functioning governments in the region, and there is widespread abuse of civil liberties, while the electoral process is significantly flawed.

“In Cameroon…the president secured a seventh term in elections held in October. The poll was characterized by low voter turnout amid poor security and severe irregularities that have left Cameroonians disillusioned with the fairness of the process” part of the report notes.

This is not the first time Cameroon is being showed a red card in democratic practice as similar findings were published by the Mo Ibrahim governance Index report in 2018. The report noted the spike in authoritarian governance in Cameroon, widespread corruption, abuse of civil and political rights, and a dysfunctional state.

Source: Fomlsc.com

10, January 2019

Congo-Kinshasa: Felix Tshisekedi from opposition scion to provisional president-elect 0

The son of DR Congo’s veteran opposition leader, Felix Tshisekedi, has taken the prize that long eluded his father – the presidency of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest country – in a surprise result his main opponent has denounced as an “electoral coup”.

On Thursday Tshisekedi was named by election officials as the provisional winner of the country’s long-delayed, chaotic and controversial presidential poll, in a surprise announcement that appeared to contradict both pre-election surveys and the findings of independent monitors.

Runner-up Martin Fayulu, the pre-election favourite, promptly denounced the results as an “electoral coup” that does “not reflect the truth of the ballots”.

In a rare comment on a foreign election, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also waded into the controversy, describing the results as “the opposite to what we expected”. He added: “The Catholic Church of Congo did its tally and announced completely different results.”

If Tshisekedi’s stunning victory is confirmed by the constitutional court, he will become the first Congolese leader to take power at the ballot box since Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, who was toppled and killed in a coup shortly after independence in 1960.

‘A historic vote and a historic win’

Tshisekedi is the head of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), a party founded by his father Etienne, who spent decades as the country’s main opposition leader but died in February last year.

Known to his friends as “Fatshi”, the portly 55-year-old is now poised to replace President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled the volatile, poverty-stricken nation with an iron fist since 2001.

But for a while, it looked like he wouldn’t even be on the ballot.

Pentecostal rivals

On November 11, Tshisekedi joined six other opposition leaders in rallying behind Fayulu to take on Kabila’s handpicked successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary.

But the deal drew a furious response from his supporters, prompting him and fellow opposition leader Vital Kamerhe to abandon the deal and run on a joint ticket, weakening and splitting the opposition.

The pair had previously agreed that if they won, Kamerhe would become Tshisekedi’s prime minister.

Profile: Felix Tshisekedi

Since his father founded the UDPS in 1982, the party has served as an opposition mainstay in the former Belgian colony – first under dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, then under Kabila’s father Laurent-Desire Kabila, who ruled from 1997 until his death in 2001. A father of five, Tshisekedi goes to the same Pentecostal church as Fayulu in Kinshasa, the capital.

Although he does not enjoy the same degree of popularity as his father, he has risen steadily through the party ranks. “Etienne was stubborn and proud,” said one keen observer of the country’s opposition. “Felix is more diplomatic, more conciliatory, more ready to listen to others.”

‘Coup’

In 2008, Tshisekedi became national secretary for external relations and was elected to the national assembly in 2011 as representative for Mbuji-Mayi, the country’s third city.

However, he never took up his seat as he did not formally recognise his father’s defeat to Kabila in a presidential election the same year. A month after his father’s death, Tshisekedi was elected as party head.

Although he holds a Belgian diploma in marketing and communication, his opponents point out that he has never held high office or had managerial experience. And some detractors have even suggested his diploma is not valid.

The legacy of DR Congo’s Joseph Kabila

Tshisekedi has promised a return to the rule of law, to fight the “gangrene” of corruption and to bring peace to the volatile east of the country, where several militias remain active more than 15 years after the end of DR Congo’s bloody civil war.

However, the result of the presidential election, which observers said was marred by a spate of irregularities, is certain to fuel suspicions among Fayulu’s supporters that Tshisekedi struck a power-sharing pact with Kabila – suspicions heightened by his victory speech on Thursday, in which he described his former bitter opponent Kabila as a “partner of democratic change”.

Fayulu, who was running well ahead of Tshisekedi in opinion polls ahead of the election, on Thursday called on the Congolese people to “rise as one man to protect victory.” Analysts have warned that any widespread perception the election has been stolen could trigger a cycle of unrest, particularly in the eastern borderlands where Fayulu enjoys some of his strongest support.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)

6, January 2019

A Picture speaks 1000 words: One, United and Indivisible Cameroon Hoax 0

Look at Ahidjo’s body language on Jan 1, 1960; the day French Cameroun was granted independence and you can see the master-servant relationship between Francophones and France. From Jan. 1 1960 to February 11, 1961, Southern Cameroons was then a self-governing British UN-mandated territory with all the trappings of a nation-state, including its own internationally recognized borders and never part of French Cameroun.

If Britain had availed itself of its obligations towards the Southern Cameroons people, the 3rd option of independence agreed by the 43 delegates at the August 1959 All Party Conference in Mamfe, chaired by Sir Sidney Phillipson, Acting Southern Cameroons Commissioner, would not have been rejected by Andrew Cohen, Britain’s representative to the UN Trusteeship Council. The time has come to right this historical wrong. Biya should stop reveling in self-delusion; we are no longer in the 1970s. The regime can say what it wants, but nobody is fooled anymore.

Biya’s nepotistic abuse of presidential power to favor his Beti kith and kin is beyond clannishness. This generation of Anglophones are well-educated and know that the issue at stake here is their natural resources, which Biya exploits to feed his kleptocratic regime of tribal jingoists. The Ambazonia resistance speaks directly to the Anglophone resolve to fight and die for their future and there will be no peace, until Biya and his Beti cabal understand that Anglophones never voted to become the footstool of French Cameroun exploitation and plunder. Anglophones have rejected a system where a small clique of vampire elite are stealing the nation blind with impunity while the president looks the other way. Just look at the scandalously inflated AFCON 2019 contracts and ask yourself whether such monumental corruption could happen in Ambazonia?

The only thing that will bring unity in Cameroon is for the government to eschew this conquest mentality and dialogue with Anglophones where both sides will renegotiate the unity and the future of Cameroon as equal partners or revert to the status quo ante Feb 11, 1961

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai

Congo-Kinshasa election results postponed until ‘next week’

6, January 2019

Congo-Kinshasa election results postponed until ‘next week’ 0

The long-awaited announcement of the results of last week’s DR Congo presidential election, promised for Sunday, will be postponed to next week, the head of the electoral commission announced on Saturday.

 “It is not possible to publish the results on Sunday. We are making progress, but we do not have everything yet,” said commission president Corneille Nangaa. An exact new date has not been announced.

Last Sunday’s DR Congo presidential election has proved most divisive. The United Nations Security Council is split over how to react to this election process, according to an internal report. The United States also condemned a lack of transparency, while China, a major investor in DR Congo, lauded the process.

The election to pick a successor to President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled the country of 80 million people since his father was assassinated in 2001, should mark the first democratic transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.

But tensions have risen since the vote after observers reported a litany of irregularities that the opposition says is part of the ruling party’s effort to steal it.

Worried that the dispute could spark the kind of violence seen after the 2006 and 2011 elections, the Security Council met on Friday to discuss how to react.

“Tensions were mounting while the CENI tabulated the results, notably in light of posturing by parties and candidates,” Leila Zerrougui, head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Democratic Republic of Congo, told the meeting, according to the internal report.

But the 15 council members “differed in their appreciation of the problems that beset the process and were divided over the question of whether the Council should issue a press statement,” the report went on to say.

A negative or cautionary international reaction could be problematic for Kabila whose government has defended the election’s organisation, and could weaken the legitimacy of Kabila’s hand-picked successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, should he be declared winner.

Inflame the situation

In Saturday’s meeting, France pushed for the publication of a statement that recognised that Congo’s election allowed people to exercise their democratic right and called for calm, but criticised the government’s decision to cut access to the Internet and some media outlets.

The United States, which has threatened to impose sanctions against those who undermine the election process and has deployed troops to Gabon in case its citizens need rescuing from any violence, backed the statement, alongside Britain, Ivory Coast, Belgium and others.

South Africa, long a Kabila ally, said the statement could “inflame” the situation if issued before the results, the report said. Russia said it could be seen as an attempt to skew public opinion. China “lauded the manner in which elections were conducted”, the report said, and said a statement should not be published before the results.

Initial results were expected on Sunday but the electoral board (CENI) said they could be delayed because vote counts were slow in arriving. The opposition, represented by its two main candidates Martin Fayulu and Felix Tshisekedi, and the ruling coalition say their candidates have won.

Congo’s Catholic church body, CENCO, said this week that it had identified the victor based on its own tallies collected by 40,000 observers, though it did not name the winner. The declaration was widely seen as a warning to authorities against rigging the vote.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS and AFP)

Amba December Resistance Spoils Biya’s New Year Eve “Victory” Soundbite

5, January 2019

Amba December Resistance Spoils Biya’s New Year Eve “Victory” Soundbite 0

The Ambazonia resistance is also a war of soundbites and news headlines reaching international news media and western capitals. The Ambazonia “spartan” resistance in December, including Christmas day clashes despite otherwise crippling losses at the hands of government defence and security forces, were a race for the headlines in classic international news and on social media.

That has spoiled what would have been the declaration of President Biya’s career if he had to open his New Year Eve address thus: “Fellow Cameroonians, my dear country men, we crushed them!”

(Remember the American official in Iraq declaring with unsuppressed relish after the capture of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, “Ladies and gentlemen, we got him!”)

That soundbite from Biya, would have had to go viral over international media and, received in the capitals of powerful countries and organizations, would have had to douse pressure on Yaounde to engage genuine, inclusive dialogue with Ambazonia leaders. After all, the world only seeks to solve a problem affecting the world, that is, the strategic interests of the big players; they are not drawn by moral, humanitarian considerations. So, if Yaounde was having the situation under control, why would the world waste scarce resources here?

Despite or because of the creation of the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Committee (also obviously in Biya’s end of year speech calculations) which looked like an olive branch weeks ago, government forces increased their fire power, hoping to build on undisputable gains from what they thought would have the impact of “serial” decapitation killings of Ambazonia field commanders.

Because of DDR and the hope that offer of amnesty to “misled good boys” dragged into the bush by “criminal bad boys” would instigate desertion  by some Ambazonia fighters as Dr  Simon Munzu lamented in a recent TV interview or a mutiny, government forces might also have hoped for some rudderless or demoralized combatants to surrender to government forces or naively throw themselves into government ambush, get massacred in quantums and their bodies displayed as signs of failure of their resistance.

Yes, some field commanders have been killed. Yes, the “Bali  Massacre”  and the Batibo/Guzang “friendly fire” backstabbing left big wounds in the heart of the Amba revolution, and there have been other factional tragedies. But there are no signs of decapitation, demoralization, induced (not coordinated) demobilization nor even desertion from the rebellion (DDDDR).

It is a good guess that recent gun battle resistance by Ambazonia forces, including some reported ruthless actions taken against captured government forces are calculated moves to dictate the soundbites that reach international media and foreign governments.

Now, it is obvious Biya cannot deliver a victory speech tonight. The Ambazonia resistance has not been crushed. The world won’t be fooled by a “victory” soundbite. Biya will have to cave in to talks as the only way of making peace with the Ambazonia resistance.

By Franklin Sone Bayen

Chief Dr. Dion Ngute’s invitation to “Come and Chop”

5, January 2019

Chief Dr. Dion Ngute’s invitation to “Come and Chop” 0

President Paul Biya has appointed Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute as the new Prime Minister replacing Philemon Yang. The appointment was made public some 24 hours after his residence was burnt down by Ambazonian Restoration Forces in his native Bobongo, Ekondo Titi in the Ndian County of Southern Cameroons

Joseph Dion Ngute was Minister of Special Duties at the Presidency of the Republic. Born on March 12, 1954, Joseph Dion Ngute is a career diplomat with a Ph.D from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom attached to his name.

He was rector of the Advanced School of Administration and Magistracy ENAM in 1991 before joining the Biya ruling CPDM clan on the 7th of December 1997 when he was appointed as Minister Delegate at the Ministry of External Relations in Charge of the Commonwealth. Joseph Dion Ngute also moonlights as the traditional ruler of the Barombi tribe, Ndian County in Southern Cameroons.

Dion Ngute’s appointment and the war in Southern Cameroons

Rotating the post of Prime Minister between the two Southern Cameroons zones with these men of yesteryears will not resolve the Anglophone crisis. Moderate Southern Cameroons political commentators have opined that “If Biya wants to save Cameroon from implosion, he should without further delay, return Cameroon to a federal system with a rotating presidency.” “Only such bold initiatives which give Anglophones a stake in the country called Cameroon can convince Ambazonians to reconsider their struggle for independence.”

All these musical chair appointments are token measures of appeasement a smack of desperation to fuel the NW/SW schism and divide the resistance. It might have worked before, but it will fail because people like Musonge, Philemon Yang, and Dion Ngute no longer speak on behalf of Anglophones. His house was burnt just yesterday, and this should signal to Biya that Dion, like other SW CPDM elite, are considered traitors of the Ambazonia struggle. His appointment as PM is just an invitation for him and his cronies to “come and chop”

Presidential election starts in Congo-Kinshasa

30, December 2018

Presidential election starts in Congo-Kinshasa 0

People have started voting in the presidential election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, amid delays and reported disorganization.

On Sunday, polling staffers were setting up voting machines in stations minutes before opening.

Reuters cited a witness in the eastern city of Goma as seeing residents casting their vote, but another polling station in the city was still closed 90 minutes after polls opened at 06:00 a.m. local time (04:00 GMT).

President Joseph Kabila, who has been in power since his father’s assassination in 2001, is not standing for re-election and will step down after the vote.

Kabila’s party, the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), has designated former Interior Minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, 58, as its presidential candidate.

As well as Ramazani, the front-runners are Felix Tshisekedi, 55, of the mainstream opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), and Martin Fayulu, 62, a little-known lawmaker and former oil executive, who has made a late surge after being named the joint candidate for several opposition parties.

​This combo image shows Felix Tshisekedi (L), the leader of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) party, and Emmanuel Ramazani Sh

A total of 21 candidates are running in the presidential race.

United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday urged rival candidates to participate in a peaceful competition.

Guterres urged citizens to “seize this historic opportunity to participate in the consolidation of the country’s democratic institutions.”

The call for a peaceful vote came a few days after clashes between the supporters of rival candidates left at least one person dead and over 80 injured.

DR Congo is one of Africa’s most volatile countries and has never known a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.

In the past 22 years, two massive wars have shaken the country, claiming many lives and sucking in armies from around Southern and Central Africa.

Lower-level conflicts are burning in the center and east of the country, which analysts say could easily flare into fully-fledged wars.

Source: Presstv

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