The Independent National Electoral Commission has started publishing partial results of Monday’s presidential election in DR Congo. The head of the INEC, Daniel Ngoy Mulunda, announced the partial results on Friday during a press conference in Kinshasa.

President Joseph Kabila leads overall while not winning in all provinces. Etienne Tshisekedi is second, leading in Bas-Congo and in the two Kasai provinces.

Mr. Kabila is leading in South Kivu, Katanga, Bandundu and Orientale Province.

The partial numbers show a heavy splitting of the votes among opposition candidates.

Leon Kengo wa Dondo is leading in Equateur Province and even Mbusa Nyamwisi is leading in North Kivu Province, both opposition candidates are from the respective provinces.

While Mr. Kabila seems to have lost the overwhelming support he got in eastern Congo during the 2006 presidential elections, the numbers seem to indicate that the erosion of support did not fall solely on either Vital Kamerhe, who is from South Kivu Province, or Etienne Tshisekedi.

If the trends continue, they may show that the opposition candidates’ huge gamble of trying to “shutdown” Mr. Kabila in their respective strongholds in order to win did not pay off.

Mr. Kabila may end up winning the election but not the popular vote. His bet earlier this year that changing the presidential election to only one round of voting will weaken and divide the opposition has already paid off. It remains to be seen if it will win him re-election.

The numbers are very partial. Only 15% of the more than 60,000 polling stations are included and only 0,02% for Kinshasa, where Mr. Tshisekedi is expected to do well. The final results are due to be published on Tuesday next week.

Read the results