Kabila 'likely to win polls'
2006-07-31 19:40
Kinshasa - The Democratic Republic of Congo began its long wait on Monday for results from historic multi-party elections likely to see Joseph Kabila win a new mandate to lead the embattled central African country.
Millions from across the vast central African country, spanning an area the size of western Europe, walked through former war zones to cast ballots for the first time in their lives, saying it was their only hope to finally end fighting and more than 40 years of kleptocratic misrule.
Kabila, 35, and the outgoing president of a transition government set up after a brutal five-year war, would likely be tasked, as the next leader, with maintaining peace in the volatile country as well as with neighbouring Rwanda, which twice invaded the DRC.
New president 'to bring peace'
After voting in the northern town of Buganza, Bienfait Mashagiro, said: "We often spent the night hiding in the bushes. The children don't go to school. It is not a good life.
"We are waiting for the new president to bring us peace."
The vast former Zaire's 50 000 polling stations closed at 19:00 and ballot counting began immediately.
The results of the presidential race were expected on August 31, while members of parliament elected to a 500-seat parliament would be named as the tallies come in from around the country.
The electoral commission said that if no presidential candidate took at least 50% of the vote outright, a second run-off round would be held on October 29, the same day as another vote for provincial MPs.
Kabila was clearly leading in one voting district in the DRC's second city, Lubumbashi. Officials said that out of 455 ballots counted in three hours, 343 had been cast in his favour.
War claims 4m lives
The former soldier came to power in 2001 after his father Laurent was assassinated at the height of the 1998-2003 war that drew in seven armies and claimed nearly four million lives, mostly through disease and neglect.
Dieudonne Baroki, a teacher in the eastern town of Rutshuru, near the troubled Rwandan border, said: "The people were worn out by this war. There was no way to make money, no schools.
"I trust Kabila because he has tried to bring peace to all the country. ... I think he will take the first round."
He had won the support of the West, despite reservations about his business dealings.
The only strong rival for the presidency was Jean-Pierre Bemba, a wealthy former rebel leader who became vice-president during the three-year transition period that followed the official end to the war in 2003.
The United Nations had called on the Congolese to accept the outcome of the vote, the first multi-party ballot since independence from Belgium in 1960, amid fears that the losers would take up arms.
But, on Sunday most voters showed only goodwill as they turned up at voting stations at daybreak, stood in queues and grappled with hundreds of names on huge ballots.