Kabila widens lead

KINSHASA – Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Laurent Kabila widened his lead in the running for the presidency, the latest partial results showed on Tuesday, with votes counted from almost half the polling districts.

The incumbent has 55 per cent of the votes counted so far, with his nearest challenger, Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba, on just under 17 per cent, according to a sum of published partial results calculated by AFP. The count was based on results published for 82 of the country’s 169 voting districts by the national polling authority the Independent Electoral Commission.They account for almost 10 million of the 25 million votes cast.The latest results showed Kabila to have widened his lead in his race for another presidential term, moving up from 53 per cent on Monday while Bemba’s share fell from 17,5 per cent.However, no results were in yet from the capital Kinshasa, where Kabila does not enjoy strong support and where some 12 per cent of the country’s voters are registered.Nampa-AFPThe count was based on results published for 82 of the country’s 169 voting districts by the national polling authority the Independent Electoral Commission.They account for almost 10 million of the 25 million votes cast.The latest results showed Kabila to have widened his lead in his race for another presidential term, moving up from 53 per cent on Monday while Bemba’s share fell from 17,5 per cent.However, no results were in yet from the capital Kinshasa, where Kabila does not enjoy strong support and where some 12 per cent of the country’s voters are registered.Nampa-AFP