By Godfrey Olukya

ARU, Democratic Republic of Congo

Rebuffing an opposition proposal, allies of Democratic Republic of Congo’s president said Thursday that he must be part of a transition up to the country’s long-delayed elections.

“Joseph Kabila has to be part of the transition. He complies with the provisions of the Constitution and the Dec. 31, 2016 agreement for elections in the DRC,” said Andre Alain Atundu Liongo, spokesman for Alliance of the Presidential Majority, a group supporting Kabila, in a statement.

This July opposition coalition leader Felix Tshisekedi said that if the elections are not held in December 2017 as agreed to in an agreement last New Year’s Eve, that there should be a six-month transition without Kabila.

Although elections are supposed to take place before end of this year, as agreed to by the opposition and government, the electoral commission and government have occasionally warned that due to unavoidable reasons, elections might not be held at the end of this year.

They claim that upheaval in the restive Kasai region has made it impossible to register voters in that area.

Kabila -- president since 2001, when his father was assassinated -- was due to leave office last December, at the end of his second and constitutionally mandated last term, but last fall cited problems in voter rolls in delaying the polls.