Joseph Kabila will step down as president of the
 Democratic Republic of Congo after elections held
before the end of 2017, under a draft agreement
 reached by political parties, according to a lead
 mediator from the Catholic Church.
Under the deal, reached on Friday but not yet signed,
Kabila will be unable to change the constitution to
 extend his mandate and run for a third term, said
Marcel Utembi, president of the Catholic Bishops'
 Conference in the DRC.
A transitional government will be put into place by
March next year, said Al Jazeera's Fahmida Miller,
reporting from neighbouring Kenya.
"During the time of the transitional government,
 they will be looking at appointing a prime minister
 from the opposition. That was vital for the opposition because it needed a bigger stake in the government,"
 she said.
She said politicians in exile may also be allowed to return without a fear of prosecution.
However, "there seems to be a number of questions
around opposition politicians within DRC who have
been arrested. They won't necessarily be freed any time soon", she said.
"What this agreement is talking about is a sort of
 commission to be set up that would look at these
political prisoners case by case and determine their fate."
If the deal is finalised, it will be DRC's first peaceful
 transfer of power since independence in 1960.
Kabila's two-term mandate ended on December 19, but authorities have effectively extended it until 2018.
His actions led to demonstrations, with security forces
 killing about 40 people just last week alone.
Western and African powers feared the failure to secure peaceful transition of power could lead to a repeat of
 conflicts seen between 1996 and 2003 in eastern DRC in which millions died, mostly from starvation and disease.