Annan salutes Kabila
2006-11-29 07:29
New York - United Nations chief Kofi Annan congratulated Joseph Kabila on his election as president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, said his spokesperson on Tuesday.
Stephane Dujarric said the secretary-general "congratulates President Joseph Kabila on his election and salutes the Congolese people, whose determination enabled the first democratic elections to be held in the country in more than 40 years".
Annan also called on all DRC opposition leaders and their supporters to peacefully accept the final election results, warning: "Neither the people of the DRC nor the international community, will tolerate the actions of those who may try to undermine the process."
Bemba accepts defeat
The UN chief appealed for generous assistance from donors to the newly elected DRC authorities.
On Tuesday, opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba accepted defeat after his legal challenge to the result of the October 29 presidential poll was thrown out by the supreme court.
Bemba said: "In the higher interest of the nation and a desire to keep the peace and prevent the country sliding into chaos and violence, I today undertake before God, the nation and history, to pursue the fight for change in a strong and republican opposition."
Kabila aides said his alliance went into talks on forming a new government, expected to be broad-based and including about 50 ministers and their deputies, once the court proclaimed him official winner of the poll.
Kabila 'Africa's youngest president'
Meanwhile, Annan noted that the electoral process in the DRC had not yet been completed and called on the new government "to take all necessary action to ensure that the Congolese people can elect their local representatives in as short a time as possible".
Dates had yet to be set for local government elections.
Africa's youngest president at 35, Kabila had a mandate to rule the DRC for five more years, after the first free elections in more than four decades that had been marked by conflict and corruption.
According to official figures, Bemba, a former rebel, took nearly 42% of the second-round votes on October 29 to Kabila's 58%. The figures revealed a deep east-west split across the country, with Bemba more popular in the west, where Kinshasa lied.
Kabila would be sworn in on December 06 at a ceremony expected to be attended by more than a score of heads of state. But, the transition process had yet to finish, with the election on January 07 of senators by the members of provincial parliaments, who would choose their governors a week later.