Congo finishes counting votes, run-off possible

Kinshasa, Aug 20: Democratic Republic of Congo was due to announce the results of historic postwar elections Sunday, with experts predicting a second round run-off.

''Everything is finished and the president of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) will announce the results this evening,'' CEI spokesman Dieudonne Mirimo said.

The July 30 presidential and parliamentary elections were the first free polls for over 40 years and meant to offer the chaotic country a fresh start after a decade of war and misery in which millions died.

With well over half of results published three weeks after the polls, President Laurent Kabila is ahead with 47 per cent -- under the 50 per cent level required for a first round win.

If full provisional results confirm that trend, Kabila will face a run-off vote against leading challenger and former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, with just under 20 per cent, experts said.

''There will be second round, there is no doubt about that,'' a Western diplomat said.

The world's largest peacekeeping force, 17,000 UN peacekeepers, backed by over 1,000 European soldiers, is overseeing a peace process culminating in polls that cost 450 million dollars and presented huge logistical and security problems.

Voting passed relatively smoothly, with millions voting peacefully despite insecurity in the east, where rebels continue to roam, and threats of unrest and boycotts in towns hostile to Kabila.

Results from many of the 50,000 polling stations across the vast country have highlighted a split between Kabila's native Swahili-speaking east, which voted heavily for the 35-year-old president, and the Lingala-speaking west, which rejected him. Until Kabila's running total dropped beneath 50 per cent, some analysts had feared a Kabila victory in the first round might spark a violent backlash in the capital Kinshasa, where he is disliked and seen by many as a foreign-backed stooge.

Bemba has picked up many of the votes in the teeming city.

Presidency sources said today afternoon Kabila's camp was still hoping for a first round victory.

But an international observer monitoring the results posted on the CEI website said a first round victory would now be impossible for Kabila.

The provisional results must be confirmed by Congo's supreme court, and Kabila and Bemba will vie for support from the 30 unsuccessful candidates and prepare for a second round of voting provisionally scheduled for October 29.

Antoine Gizenga, a veteran opposition politician in his 80s, is running in third place with around 10 per cent of votes already published.

REUTERS