Kabila ahead of rival

KINSHASA – President Joseph Kabila is ahead of his rival in a tense runoff for the nation’s top post, according to the first electoral returns released on Sunday by the country’s electoral commission.

The results, based on less than a million ballots from the nation’s 25 million registered voters, show Kabila with about 68,5 per cent, compared to 31,5 per cent for former rebel leader and current Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba. The results came from 12 administrative regions that have finished counting out of 189 in the country, electoral official Dieudonne Mirimo said.Turnout in the second round was about 71 per cent, about the same as the first round in July.Electoral officials have said they will announce overall provisional results from the runoff by November 19, and perhaps much earlier.The vote is the culmination of a four-year transition process meant to transform the troubled Central African nation into a democracy after decades of dictatorship and war.Tensions have been high here since August, when forces loyal to both candidates fought three days of gunbattles in the streets of the capital, Kinshasa, as results trickled in which eventually showed Kabila with 45 per cent of the vote, compared to Bemba’s 20 per cent.The results released on Sunday showed a regional split in the candidates’ support.Bemba received a majority of the votes counted so far in his stronghold in Equateur province, and won easily in other western areas.Kabila, meanwhile, easily captured towns polled in his native east.In the eastern city of Goma, for example, Kabila received 130 797 votes to 4 049 for Bemba.In the Equateur province town of Mobayi-Mbongo, Bemba received 25 306 votes to Kabila’s 3 697.None of the results came from the capital of Kinshasa, a city of about 6,5 million, where Bemba has a strong following.Mineral-rich Congo is struggling to recover from a 1998-2002 war that drew in the armies of half a dozen African nations which left much of the north and east of the country in the hands of rebel factions.Bemba and other rebel officials took top posts in a transitional government set up in 2003 after a peace deal reunited the country.Nampa-APThe results came from 12 administrative regions that have finished counting out of 189 in the country, electoral official Dieudonne Mirimo said.Turnout in the second round was about 71 per cent, about the same as the first round in July.Electoral officials have said they will announce overall provisional results from the runoff by November 19, and perhaps much earlier.The vote is the culmination of a four-year transition process meant to transform the troubled Central African nation into a democracy after decades of dictatorship and war.Tensions have been high here since August, when forces loyal to both candidates fought three days of gunbattles in the streets of the capital, Kinshasa, as results trickled in which eventually showed Kabila with 45 per cent of the vote, compared to Bemba’s 20 per cent.The results released on Sunday showed a regional split in the candidates’ support.Bemba received a majority of the votes counted so far in his stronghold in Equateur province, and won easily in other western areas.Kabila, meanwhile, easily captured towns polled in his native east.In the eastern city of Goma, for example, Kabila received 130 797 votes to 4 049 for Bemba.In the Equateur province town of Mobayi-Mbongo, Bemba received 25 306 votes to Kabila’s 3 697.None of the results came from the capital of Kinshasa, a city of about 6,5 million, where Bemba has a strong following.Mineral-rich Congo is struggling to recover from a 1998-2002 war that drew in the armies of half a dozen African nations which left much of the north and east of the country in the hands of rebel factions.Bemba and other rebel officials took top posts in a transitional government set up in 2003 after a peace deal reunited the country.Nampa-AP