DR Congo's President Joseph Kabila, who is constitutionally barred from running for a new term, can remain in office even if no election takes place before his mandate expires at the end of 2016, the Constitutional Court said Tuesday.

The ruling was handed down on the request of the ruling party amid increasing international and domestic concern over the government's failure to set a date for the next elections, originally due to have been held in November before Kabila's mandate ends.