The Democratic Republic of Congo’s legislature has adopted a new Constitution that reduces the required age for presidential candidates, a move that would allow President Joseph Kabila to stand in the country’s next elections, officials said on Saturday.
The National Assembly adopted the 226-article Constitution late on Friday night, said assembly spokesperson Vicky Katumwa.
The new text replaces the DRCs transitional Constitution which was drafted in 2002 in South Africa to end the country’s horrendous five-year war. It must be approved by a national referendum within six months.
Once approved, the Constitution will guarantee presidential and parliamentary elections by June 2006.
The transitional Constitution had called for elections by June 30, but election officials have all but ensured their delay through poor planning and legislative foot-dragging.
”The main obstacle standing in the way of Congo’s elections has now been solved,” said Katumwa.
The new Constitution reduces the age requirement for presidential candidates from 35 years to 30 years. The move would allow Kabila (33) to run for office whenever the vote is held.
The text also allows presidents to serve two five-year terms in office, if elected by popular vote.
A firm system of checks and balances between the president, prime minister and Parliament was also guaranteed in the new draft, along with free primary education for all children.
It also recognises the various ethnic groups living in the DRC at the time of independence in June 1960. The recognition is intended to end a long history of harassment of ethnic minority Tutsis, most living in the east near the border with Rwanda.
Ethnic Tutsis are also a minority in Rwanda, a nation whose Tutsi president has twice sent troops into the DRC during wars over the past decade.
South African President Thabo Mbeki was expected to arrive in the capital Kinshasa on Monday for a ceremony to celebrate the Constitution’s adoption, South Africa’s foreign ministry said on Saturday.
Mbeki was instrumental in helping pave the way for the DRC’s transitional Constitution three years ago, and kick-starting dialogue between the country’s warring parties.
The DRC is struggling to recover from years of war and corruption that have left the nation impoverished despite its mineral wealth. – Sapa-AP