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| - President Felix Tshisekedi's office in the Democratic Republic of Congo has announced an end to weeks-long "political consultations" held to settle a brewing crisis with his partners in the country's uneasy ruling coalition. Since he took power last year, Tshisekedi has governed the vast central African country in a pact with the Common Front for the Congo (FCC), which supports the president's predecessor Joseph Kabila, who ruled for nearly two decades. The FCC has a majority in parliament and in the government, where it holds the prime minister's post. Tensions have multiplied within the coalition and came to a head after Tshisekedi in July named three new justices to the country's top court, the Constitutional Council, overriding strong protests from the FCC. FCC leaders boycotted the judges' swearing-in ceremonies on October 21. In a broadcast two days later, Tshisekedi acknowledged disagreements over national security, the management of state assets, the independence of the judiciary and the organisation of elections. Since November 2, Tshisekedi has received "political and social forces in all their diversity" with the aim of uniting them "around a shared vision of governance known as the sacred union of the nation," presidential spokesman Kasongo Mwema said. "As of tonight, we're entering the phase of compiling the memos" submitted by those invited to the talks, Mwema said late Wednesday. "At the end of this phase, the head of state will address the nation to announce his decisions," Mwema said, without giving a date for Tshisekedi's speech. On Wednesday, the FCC declined a last-minute invitation from the president's office, replying in a letter that it was "available for dialogue with the head of state," but only "in the framework of structures and mechanisms provided for in the majority coalition accord". Jean-Marc Kabund, secretary general of Tshisekedi's Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), met with the president on Wednesday. "There will be no cohabitation nor a coalition in this country, the page must be turned," Kabund said after the meeting. He claimed that the presidency was "in the process of pulling off a feat that nobody could have expected: to dismantle a system installed in this country since 1960, a system based on predation." Tshisekedi has also met with a number of diplomats in recent days, notably from the European Union, France, Britain and former colonial power Belgium. st/ob/nb/ri/dl
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