congo votes by Ray Dirks. Picture shows a voter in the district of Kinshasa pondering which of the 700 candidates for Parliament she’ll vote for.

(The Guardian Unlimited) Congo’s historic presidential election will go to a second round after President Joseph Kabila failed to secure an outright majority in last month’s poll.

Results released late last night showed that Mr Kabila won 45% of the 17 million votes cast. He will face Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former rebel leader who polled 20%, in a run-off on October 29.

Mr Kabila, who heads the transitional government and took power when his father was assassinated in 2001, called the result a “great victory”. “To all of you who have chosen me, I say thank you,” he said.

The outcome comes as a relief to many observers, analysts and indeed voters in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In recent days there has a marked increase in tension with fears that an outright win for Mr Kabila could trigger violence from some of his rivals who had said that the poll was rigged.

“A run-off is a good thing for Congo’s path towards democracy and weakens perceptions of vote manipulation,” said Jim Terrie, a regional political analyst based in Nairobi. “It also gives people a much clearer choice now that there are only two candidates.”

In the July 30 ballot, the country’s first free multiparty poll in more than 40 years, there were 33 presidential hopefuls. Mr Kabila was always the favourite to win – the only question was by how much. (The Guardian Unlimited)

Kinshasa, Congo.

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