Kabila Maintains Lead

With almost half of the votes in Kabila remains above 50 percent at 53.3% while his closest follower Jean Pierre Bemba is at 17.5%. Votes from 78 of 169 constituencies have been counted. Even though votes from Kinshasa were promised last Friday, results have yet to be released. On Monday, the CEI issued a release to political parties and candidates indicating that they have 48 hours to contest results from polling stations.

The big challenge for the CEI and the international community remains how they can make Kabila win in the first round. It is almost impossible for him to win fairly in the first round but you can rest assured that there is a lot of behind the scenes efforts to make sure this happens.

Our readers are asking some simple questions regarding the balloting but answers are fleeting because the electoral process in the Congo is anything but free, fair and transparent. It was orchestrated from the outset to produce a desired result - the maintenance of Kabila in power. Let us see if the result will be achieved. The first announcement of the final results is still expected on this coming Sunday, August 20, 2006.