DR Congo election panel ‘may postpone vote for a week’

He stayed on, invoking a caretaker clause in the constitution, but at the cost of protests that were bloodily repressed.

– Front-runners –

Twenty-one candidates are vying to replace him.

The pack is led by Kabila’s hand-picked successor Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, a hardline former interior minister linked to the crackdown, and opposition leaders Fayulu and Felix Tshisekedi.

Fayulu, 62, was a little-known legislator from a minority party who was thrust into the limelight on November 11 when opposition leaders named him their choice as a consensus candidate.

His nomination was initially backed by six other opposition leaders, including two political heavyweights — ex-warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba and businessman Moise Katumbi, an exiled former provincial governor, both of whom were blocked from running.

But the deal swiftly fell apart as Tshisekedi, who heads the UDPS — the country’s oldest and biggest opposition party — insisted he would take his own tilt at the presidency.

Adding to political tensions is the logistical hurdle of organising the elections.

Parts of eastern DRC are in the grip of militia violence and an Ebola epidemic, raising many questions about whether an orderly ballot can take place there.