Kabila to submit DR Congo polls candidacy Sunday

Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila will formally submit his candidacy on Sunday for re-election at polls scheduled for November 28, according to his party. Kabila, president since 2001, was nominated by his People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) as its presidential candidate last month but he will register as an independent, a spokesman for the party said Friday. "As in 2006, (Kabila) will present himself as a candidate of the Congolese people, therefore, he will be running as an independent candidate," the spokesman, Emile Bongeli Yeikelo, told AFP. Yeikelo said that as head of a governing coalition it was understandable that Kabila should decide to not run on a narrow party ticket. As many as 170 parties are allied to Kabila and his coalition. Kabila, 40, came to power after the assassination of his father Laurent Kabila in January 2001. He won a 2006 election run-off against Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former vice-president who is now being held at the International Criminal Court in The Hague on war crimes charges. Although Bemba has had to abandon his hopes of a new run for the presidency, Nzanga Mobutu, the son of former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, has officially filed his candidacy. Others who have already declared thrown their hats into the ring or are expected to do so over the weekend included Etienne Tshisekedi, who is the leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), and Leon Kengo wa Dondo, the current president of the Congolese senate. The deadline to submit candidacies is on Sunday.