In a statement issued by Mr Stéphane Dujarric, his spokesman, Guterres also welcomed the continued progress towards the holding of presidential and legislative elections in DRC in December, preparing the ground for a peaceful transfer of power. Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, a former interior minister named by the government last Wednesday as the ruling coalition candidate, is described as an independent, according to a preliminary list issued by the electoral commission. Jean-Pierre Bemba, the leader of a rebel group-turned-political party, just returned to the country from ten years in The Hague after the International Criminal Court acquitted him of war crimes. If Ramazani did become president, it’s possible Kabila could continue to pull the strings from behind the scenes, in the way that Vladimir Putin skirted term limits in Russia by serving as prime minister while Dmitry Medvedev was president.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa meets with President Joseph Kabila of DR Congo in Kinshasa, praising him for his "respect for the constitution" by agreeing to step down and not take part in the upcoming December 2018 Congolese general election.