Policy Brief - DR Congo’s current political crisis: urging the EU and its Member States to start making all the necessary provisions to ensure free, fair, and transparent elections in 2023

In February 2021, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will take over the rotating Presidency of the African Union for the next 12 months. The Congolese government will do so amid a deepening political crisis at home, arising from an ongoing power struggle between the current President Félix Tshisekedi and the former President Joseph Kabila's political coalitions. It is of the utmost importance that the EU and its Member States insist that the DRC government will start making all the necessary provisions to ensure free, fair, and transparent elections in 2023. This includes the transformation of the CENI into a technical, impartial, and politically independent electoral body and the timely reservation of funds to finance the election process.