If, despite some legal hurdles, the elections are held, President Joseph Kabila is likely to win another five years in power
Congo’s approaching elections are already entangled by lawyers. The main opposition party, Jean-Pierre Bemba’s Mouvement de libération du Congo (MLC), supported by several local non-governmental organisations, claims that the serving President (and candidate) Joseph Kabila will unlawfully prolong his time in office, which is due to end on 6 December 2011. The Commission electorale indépendante (CEI), whose Chairman is Father Apollinaire Malu Malu, points out that, even if elected in the first round of voting on 27 November, the incoming president would not take office until 10 January 2012; a second round would postpone that until 4 April 2012. So Kabila and the present members of the National Assembly would hold office after they should have left.
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