(Bloomberg) -- Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary will be the candidate for the Democratic Republic of Congo’s ruling coalition in December elections, a government official said, ending speculation that President Joseph Kabila may run again.

Shadary is on his way to the electoral commission’s offices to register his candidacy, government spokesman Lambert Mende said at a press briefing in the capital, Kinshasa, on Wednesday. Shadary, 57, is the permanent secretary of Kabila’s People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy and a former interior minister.

Kabila, in power since 2001, had been consulting with his Common Front for Congo coalition, or FCC, since late July and its choice of candidate was a closely guarded secret. The president’s decision not to compete in the vote will assuage international actors such as the U.S., United Nations, African Union and European Union. Congo’s major opposition groups had also demanded that Kabila not participate.

Congo’s presidential and parliamentary elections are set to take place on Dec. 23. They were initially supposed to be held in late 2016, but were postponed when the electoral commission’s failed to organize them.

Third Term

Kabila was elected in two previous elections and adversaries claim that he himself was the main obstacle to timely polls as he was reluctant to give up power. The president’s refusal to exclude himself from the next election until the last minute fueled speculation he’d seek a third term.

Kabila’s initial choice to retain the presidency beyond the end of his second five-year term, which expired in December 2016, sparked sporadic violently suppressed protests, during which security forces have killed dozens of people. Congo hasn’t had a peaceful transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.

So far, three major opposition leaders -- Jean-Pierre Bemba, Vital Kamerhe and Felix Tshisekedi -- have registered to compete in the presidential election. Another, Moise Katumbi, says Kabila is preventing him from returning to Congo and filing his papers.

The four men have said they may unite behind a single opposition candidate.

To contact the reporter on this story: William Clowes in Kinshasa at wclowes@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn

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