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Congo's president wins runoff vote

Supporters of his opponent, a former rebel leader, challenge the election results.

KINSHASA, Congo - Congo's incumbent president has won a tense runoff, nearly complete election results showed Tuesday. He now has to make order out of the chaos that long has plagued a country bursting with natural resources and former warlords.

Joseph Kabila, 35, must first placate rival Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former rebel leader whose fighters have clashed with his in downtown Kinshasa twice over election results.

Bemba's supporters issued a bellicose statement Tuesday saying their count gave Bemba 52 percent of the vote, which would mean he had won, and calling the official vote count an "electoral holdup."

They threatened to tear up accords promising not to use military force to resolve disputes about the Oct. 29 runoff.

Kabila's lead seemed insurmountable, with results from 90 percent of votes published on the election commission Web site giving him nearly 60 percent.

No official announcement was expected while the commission completes its investigations into fraud complaints lodged by Bemba's camp.

If Kabila is declared the winner, as seemed likely, he will face the enormous challenge of unifying a country with little sense of nationhood and little experience of resolving differences through politics. Kabila has managed to convince foreign governments that he is capable of governing.

Congo's people have never known prosperity. Today the average Congolese struggles to feed a family on the equivalent of 27 cents a day, one in five youngsters doesn't live beyond the age of 5 and most Congolese die by age 50.

[Last modified November 15, 2006, 01:56:36]