Incumbent President Joseph Kabila received 45 percent of the vote while challenger Jean-Pierre Bemba, who serves as vice president in the transitional government, received 20 percent of the votes cast. More than 30 candidates were on the ballot.
Lacking a majority of the votes, the candidates will face one another in a run-off election now scheduled for October 29. To read an earlier story published in this online Covenant news report, please see Congo Election.
Troops loyal to the two fought Monday around Bemba’s house in the northeastern Gombe district of Kinshasa, reports the Associated Press. Bemba’s political party said Kabila’s guards attacked the house, drawing return fire from Bemba’s guards. Bemba’s helicopter caught fire inside the compound.
U.N. peacekeepers had to be called to evacuate a number of foreign diplomats meeting in Bemba’s home, who were trapped by the fighting. They included the head of the U.N.’s 17,500-troop peacekeeping mission, William Swing, and diplomats from the United States, France, China and other countries. Swing served as ambassador to Congo in 2000 and was instrumental in helping arrange a USAID grant to vaccinate children in the area served by the Covenant Church of Congo (CEUM) during the six-year civil war. Bemba was evacuated along with the others.
In a bid to quell the violence, the army issued orders Monday for all soldiers in the Congolese capital to return to their barracks and lay down their arms. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) also reported today that 400 additional European Union troops are being flown into Kinshasa to help quell raging gun battles. Bemba, a former rebel leader, retains his own personal security force, but after the clashes at his house on Monday night, he is now under U.N. protection.
The July 30 election was the first democratic election to be held in the country since it gained independence in 1960. The election followed the end of a six-year civil war that resulted in the deaths of more than three million people in Congo, a country two-thirds the size of western Europe. Bemba won most of the votes in the western part of the country, while Kabila gained most of his support in the Swahili-speaking eastern region. Charges of election fraud have come from a number of rivals on the July ballot, including members of Bemba’s party.
Covenant News Service will publish additional information as it becomes available.
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