The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will establish a national commission to draft a new constitution in 2025, a local media reported, citing the country's President Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi.
"Our constitution contains weaknesses; it is good for our elite to think about it," the president stressed during the meeting with the public in the city of Kisangani, the capital of Tshopo Province located in the eastern part of the nation, as quoted by the media.
The head of state said that the current document has drawbacks and was written by foreigners, alluding to the 2003 South Africa peace agreement, which put an end to a civil war and set up a government of national unity.
The lengthy decision-making process, which frequently takes months after elections before a government is formed, and the conflicts between governors and provincial assemblies were criticized by Tshisekedi on Wednesday as reasons for drafting a new constitution.
According to the report, the DRC's ruling party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), had officially launched its campaign in favor of revising the constitution of the DRC on October 11.
The DRC held presidential, legislative, and local elections in December 2023. The Constitutional Court declared Felix Tshisekedi re-elected as the country's president for the second consecutive term for five years.
Since 1960, the year the central African country achieved independence from Belgium, it had a total of six constitutions, with the latest one being adopted at a referendum in 2006.