Congolese overwhelmingly oppose changing the constitution to allow President Joseph Kabila to stand for a third term and believe he should step down at the end of his mandate in December, according to a opinion poll published on Tuesday.
Democratic Republic of
Congo's ruling coalition and part of the opposition have agreed to delay the vote from this November to April 2018, citing difficulties enrolling millions of voters
But the main opposition bloc rejects the accord, saying it allows Kabila to cling to power and remove constitutional term limits.
The poll, conducted by the
Congo
Research Group at New York University in collaboration with aCongolese polling institute, sampled 7,545 respondents in
Congo's 26 provinces in face-to-face interviews between May and September.
Over 81 per cent of the respondents oppose changing the constitution to allow Kabila to stand for a third term. Seventy-four per cent say he should leave office this year.
If the presidential election were held today, 33 per cent said they would vote for former provincial governor Moise Katumbi, 18 per cent for opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi and 7.8 per cent for Kabila. Kabila registered a 44 per cent approval rating. Katumbi and Tshisekedi received 85.8 and 65.3 per cent ratings respectively.
The results, which varied little based on socio-economic status, gender and religion, show a marked drop in support for Kabila, who officially won 48.9 per cent of the vote in 2011, a consequence of a lack of economic development and poor security.
Exhaustive surveys are almost non-existent in
Congo, where poor roads and little electricity make polling difficult or unreliable. The
Congo
Research Group said its poll had a margin of error of 5 per cent.
Katumbi, the multi-millionaire former governor of
Congo's copper-mining region, declared his candidacy for president in May but was then sentenced in absentia to three years in prison for real estate fraud.
Tshisekedi, the 83-year-old president of
Congo's largest opposition party, finished runner-up to Kabila in the 2011 election, which observers said was marred by fraud.
Congo
is Africa's largest copper producer but ranks 176 out of 188 countries on the UN Human Development Index.
Over 48 per cent of respondents said they would participate in protests if elections were rigged or delayed.
Congo
has not experienced a peaceful transition of power since independence in 1960. Dozens were killed last month in demonstrations in the capital, Kinshasa.