President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is set to face Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba in an October presidential runoff after no single candidate gathered more than 50 percent valid votes in the first round of presidential elections, election officials announced Sunday.

Incumbent President Kabila won 44.81 percent of the votes, while Bemba, a vice-president and former rebel leader, got 20.03 percent, head of the independent electoral commission Apollinaire Malu Malu announced on national TV.

Candidates needed to garner more than 50 percent of votes to win outright and the two front-runners needed to take a second and final round on Oct. 29.

"Joseph Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba, the two candidates who received the most amount of votes, are allowed to stand in the second round of the presidential election," Malu Malu said.

Some 17 million voters cast ballots in the July 30 polls. Apart from Kaliba and Bemba, 31 other candidates joined the race but none made it through to the runoff. The electoral commission said turnout stood at around 70.54 percent.

The presidential race was the first democratic one in over four decades in the African nation with a population sized at over 58 million.

After the announcement of the results, sporadic clashes erupted in the country where the United Nations station 17,500 peacekeepers.

In the capital Kinshasa, gunfire could be heard outside the electoral commission buildings. Reports said Kabila's special guards and government troops loyal to Bemba exchanged fire and at least one soldier was killed.

(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2006)