(Ecofin Agency) - On February 2, head of government of DRC Augustin Matata Ponyo said the fall in prices of commodities could compromise funding of upcoming elections, the presidential included. This implies that the fall could allow actual President Joseph Kabila to remain in power beyond December 2016 where elections are to take place.

“If the price of copper falls to $2600 per ton and barrel of oil to $10, and also if all mining companies close (…) we won’t finance the elections with the population’s money,” Matata Ponyo told a press conference. The head of government also said these prices would “drop further” in 2016 as a result of weakening demand which will have“direct impact” on the country’s revenues.

According to the electoral commission, the revision of electoral register should cost $1.2 billion.

Regarding the staying in power of actual President Kabila, it should be recalled that subsequent to his re-election in 2011, a wave of killings arose in 2015 following protests by the population against the implementation of a legislation which would have allowed the president to extend his mandate by postponing the elections in 2016.

Joseph Kabila came into power in 2001 after the assassination of his father, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, during Congo’s second war before being elected for his first mandate in 2006. Re-elected for a second mandate in 2011, opposition contested elections saying they were fraudulent thus the current crisis it experiences.