The Extraordinary Congress of the Presidential Party Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS/Tshisekedi) will be held in Kinshasa on August 25 and 26, 2023. During this event, the candidacy of the current President of the Republic Félix Tshisekedi for a second term will be approved. This announcement was made by the Secretary General of the party, Augustin Kabuya, during a political morning at the party headquarters in Limete.
The extraordinary congress will have as its only point on the agenda the endorsement of the candidacy of Felix Tshisekedi. Only people recognized in the party statutes will be allowed to attend, and Augustin Kabuya warned that any attempt to disrupt the event would lead to problems with him. He also expressed a desire for the party to receive more candidacies for the national legislative elections, arguing that the provisional lists of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) do not fully reflect the presence of the UDPS.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is preparing for its 4th electoral cycle since the adoption of the 2006 constitution. Félix Tshisekedi is running for his own succession and relies on a mega political platform called “Union Sacrée”, which brings together several formations and political leaders, including those of Joseph Kabila’s Common Front for Congo (FCC) and former vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo.
This announcement of the extraordinary congress of the UDPS/Tshisekedi marks a key step in the preparation of the next elections in the DRC. All eyes will be on Kinshasa on August 25 and 26 to see how this candidacy of Félix Tshisekedi will be ratified and what the reaction of the other political actors in the country will be