The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Thursday announced the final list of candidates for its long-delayed presidential election this December.
According to the country’s Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), 21 candidates will run in the Dec. 23 polls.
Corneille Nangaa, the commission’s head, said in a statement that there are no obstacles that could hinder the election and that all parties should respect the election process.
From the opposition side, 25 people applied to run for president, but the commission only allowed four of them.
Popular opposition figures like Jean-Pierre Bemba and Adolphe Muzito were excluded from the election by the constitutional court. Another leading opposition figure, Moses Katumbi, did not apply to run.
Joseph Kabila, the country's current president, who took over from his father Laurent Kabila in 2001, will not be running for a third term. Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary will represent the governing coalition in the election.
Kabila was supposed to step down in 2016 but refused to do so, saying that elections could not take place as most voters had not been registered yet.
The date for this December's elections was announced in November 2017.
