Felix Tshisekedi, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo at a past event. [AFP]
A leading opposition figure in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday called on President Felix Tshisekedi to "give up" proposed constitutional changes that could open the way for him to secure a third term.
Elections are two years away but tensions are already high between the government and its opponents since the ruling-party-majority parliament approved a proposal to extend the presidential mandate.
"A nation at war should not have changing the constitution as a priority," said Delly Sesanga, president of the ENVOL party and member of the C64 opposition coalition.
Tshisekedi, 63, has been in power since 2019 and his second and final five-year term should finish in 2028.
He has not yet decided whether to pass the bill into law.
Earlier this month, Tshisekedi sent back to the national assembly for review a widely criticised draft law easing the conditions for organising referendums, which was approved by the Constitutional Court in late July.
Sesanga called the move "a gesture that is still not sufficient" and urged the Congolese head of state and the assembly, dominated by the presidential majority, to "definitively abandon this project".