Congo’s President Joseph Kabila won a presidential election with 58.05 percent of the votes, according to provisional results on Wednesday, but the coalition of his rival Jean-Pierre Bemba rejected the result. International peacekeepers stepped up patrols in the capital, and UN armoured vehicles and jeeps from a European Union force raced round the streets of Kinshasa where supporters of the candidates have fought twice in the past three months. “Therefore, having garnered the absolute majority of votes in the second round, Mr Joseph Kabila Kabange is declared president of Democratic Republic of Congo,” election commission chief Apollinaire Malu Malu said in a broadcast announcing the results of the Oct. 29 run-off poll.
The result, giving Bemba 41.95 percent, has to be confirmed by the Supreme Court. “Our position has not changed. These are results that will never be credible. We will hold a political meeting tomorrow before saying more,” said Joseph Olenghankoy, a spokesman for Bemba’s Union for the Nation coalition.