Incumbent President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
Joseph Kabila had won a presidential run-off, defeating Vice
President Jean-Pierre Bemba, the country's electoral commission
declared on Wednesday.
According to the election result, Kabila netted 9,436,800 votes,
about 58 percent of the valid ballots, against Bemba's 6,819,800
votes, nearly 42 percent.
The electoral commission said a total of 16.61 million eligible
voters cast ballots in 50,000 polling stations nationwide, and the
turnout was roughly 65 percent.
Kabila first assumed the DRC's top post when his father Laurent
Kabila was assassinated in 2001.
The historic Oct. 29 voting was the first multi-party election
in the strife-ridden county in more than four decades. It was also
considered the culmination of a peace process that started four
years ago to end the DRC's 1998-2003 civil war in which Bemba led a
rebel faction before joining a power-sharing government.
(Xinhua News Agency November 16, 2006)
