Voters were casting ballots again today, however, in the town of Bumba, where some members of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Congo (CEUM) live. Some residents rioted and destroyed a dozen polling stations after learning that a polling station chief was caught stuffing a ballot box favoring incumbent Congo President Joseph Kabila, who is the favored candidate.
His opponent is Congo Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba. Covenant medical missionary Dr. Theodora Johnson delivered Bemba at the Bokada mission station in 1962. Johnson was a missionary for 41 years.
A run-off election became necessary after neither candidate garnered a majority vote in the first election that included numerous candidates. Kabila received 45 percent of the vote, with Bemba receiving 20 percent.
The official count is to be announced November 17. The lack of good roads inhibits the ability to retrieve votes from remote areas of the country, says former missionary Janet Thornbloom. Congo is the size of Western Europe.
The elections represent the first multi-party races since the country achieved independence in 1960. More than 1,000 international and 40,000 Congolese observers monitored the polls, while some 80,000 policemen, 17,600 United Nations troops, and 1,200 European Union soldiers assisted with security.
Kabila and Bemba have both pledged to honor the results of the election.
