The Electoral Commission of the Democratic Republic of Congo has received 25 applications for the presidential election on December 23, including that of President Joseph Kabila’s dauphin.
Three leading opposition figures, Felix Tshisekedi, Vital Kamerhe and Jean-Pierre Bemba, are among the candidates who have filed their cases, according to Agence France-Presse.
Antoine Gizenga, 92, brother-in-arms of the national independence hero Patrice Lumumba, who was assassinated in 1961, also filed an application.
He was deputy prime minister at the time of independence in 1960.
Mr. Gizenga was also Prime Minister of Joseph Kabila after his first election in 2006.
The electoral commission, which publicized the list of candidates on Friday, will publish on August 24 a provisional list, then a final list, on September 19th.
The president of the electoral commission, Corneille Nangaa, had spoken of 23 files received on Thursday morning, the day after the closing of the submission.
The candidate announced in extremis Wednesday by the presidential camp, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, is registered under the label “independent”, according to the electoral commission.
Joseph Kabila, no longer able to represent himself according to the Constitution, has appointed his former Minister of the Interior Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary.
This choice is the fruit of a consultation within the Common Front for Congo (FCC), the presidential coalition, according to the president’s relatives.
