This Friday September 15 2006, the DRC Supreme Court, as well as validating the date of the second round for October 29 next, announced the official results of the first round of the presidential election of 30 July last, confirming J. Kabila as the poll leader with 44.8% of the votes, with 20% for J.P. Bemba.

The Supreme Court accepted the constitutional exemption request submitted by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on 5 September last, judging that the materials necessary for the elections would not be in place before October 29 next.

According to the statement read by Kalonda Peneke Oloya, first vice-president of the Court, “the Supreme Court of Justice prolongs the 15 day constitutional deadline to 50 days for the holding of the second round of the presidential poll.”

He added that “this deadline becomes effective on the day following the proclamation of the final results of the first round,” - which is in effect tomorrow Saturday September 16.
Thus, the second round presidential opponents will be President Joseph Kabila and Vice-President Jean Pierre Bemba.

Henri Mova Sakanyi, Minister for Information and member of the Alliance of the Presidential Majority (AMP) which supports Mr. Kabila, told AFP that: “We can only satisfy us that the Court validated the calendar electoral and confirmed our candidate in his position at the head. That puts to us at ease.”

The United Nations and the international community are on hand to provide the IEC with technical and logistical aid, in particular with regard to the deployment of the electoral material inside the country.

“This is a gigantic task”, according to MONUC deputy Spokesperson Jean-Tobie Okala, “because it implies more than one hundred flights of planes and helicopters to distribute some 60,000 electoral kits in more than 50,000 polling stations, spread over a country the size of a sub-continent.”