Dissidents expelled from Congo ruling coalition: minister

Seven senior political figures were kicked out of Democratic Republic of Congo's ruling coalition on Wednesday for signing a letter urging President Joseph Kabila not to cling to power after his term expires next year, a minister said.
Minister of Parliamentary Relations Tryphon Kin Kiey Wa Mulumba said the political bureau of the presidential majority, a coalition of parties aligned with Kabila's party in parliament, had expelled the seven men, who include the planning minister and the first vice president of the National Assembly.
"The seven signatories of the anti-Kabila memo have excluded themselves from the presidential family, the political bureau of the majority decides," Kin Kiey tweeted.
Planning Minister Olivier Kamitatu told Reuters that members of the G7, a grouping of parties within the coalition, had walked out of an emergency meeting in the capital Kinshasa called in response to the letter when the majority refused to consider the issues they had raised.
Kabila, in power since the assassination of his father, president Laurent Kabila, in 2001, is required by the constitution to step down next year, but critics accuse him of seeking to extend his rule.