Protesters calling for Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila to resign and hold elections burned tires on Friday in the streets of the opposition stronghold of Lubumbashi, and police fired tear gas to disperse them, United Nations -backed Radio Okapi reported.
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Elections were scheduled for November but the electoral commission said last month that Congo’s voter registry will not even be complete until July 2017.
The opposition says he is plotting to extend his tenure and that its suspicions were reinforced on Saturday when the election commission petitioned the constitutional court to postpone the next presidential vote.
However, donors and Western powers have pressured Kabila not to remain in power beyond when his mandate runs out on December 19.
Congo has never experienced a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960, and protests over Kabila’s perceived attempts to cling to power have led to deadly clashes with security forces on a number of occasions over the past year.
The police action came after youths shouting “Kabila get out”, and “Kabila has to go”, threw stones at police on Lumumba boulevard, an arterial avenue in the heart of the city.
Before the clashes, opposition activists burnt a giant poster of the president bearing a message appealing for the two sides to reach a solution to the political crisis through “dialogue”.
Rights group Amnesty International had on Thursday accused authorities in mineral-rich DR Congo of “systematic repression” of those seeking Kabila’s departure when his third term runs out on December 20. “Police used teargas and they [the protesters] fled”, Louis Mbura said.
No elections have been announced and it is doubtful that a poll could be organised before the end of the year.
Government spokesman Lambert Mende says two police officers and two civilians were killed.
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In June, another leading opposition figure, Moise Katumbi, was sentenced in absentia to three years in jail for property fraud.
