Twenty-four candidates presented their intentions to run for the post in the country's elections scheduled for December 20, according to the Democratic Republic of the Congo's election commission.
The deadline for the announcement of candidates was October 8. The final list will be officially confirmed by the constitutional court in the next few weeks.
The presidential election, which is due to be held alongside a parliamentary vote, will be a single-round poll.
The incumbent President Felix Tshisekedi is among the candidates who will face off in elections. Tshisekedi, leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) – the DRC's oldest and largest party – came to power after an election in 2018, shortly after succeeding his late father Etienne Tshisekedi as the party's leader.
Declared opposition candidates include Martin Fayulu, who ran unsuccessfully in 2018, and two ex-prime ministers of Tshisekedi's predecessor Joseph Kabila – Augustin Matata Ponyo and Adolphe Muzito.
Last week, Denis Mukwege, a surgical gynecologist and Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2018, announced that he will run for president in elections.
A political analyst at the local Ebuteli Research Institute, Tresor Kibangula, suggested that there are some contestants negotiating the possibility to join behind a common opposition figure.
"It will be difficult to reach a consensus on a single candidacy as some candidates are playing for their political survival", he said as cited by media.
The elections in the DR Congo will take place against the backdrop of an armed conflict in the east of the country. According to the African Center for Strategic Studies, there are concerns about the reignition of a regional conflict in the Great Lakes region and questions about the status of the 18,000 troop United Nations peace operations mission (MONUSCO).