Update: Legislative Results

With almost all the attention focused on the presidential race, the legislative/parliamentary races get very little focus. Five hundred seats are up for grabs and over 9,000 candidates are running for these seats. Once the parliament is in place and the president determined, the parliament will elect a prime minister.

Thus far results have come in for 324 of the 500 parliamentary seats. The 31-party Alliance of the Presidential Majority, headed by Kabila, gained 161 seats. The 23-party Rally of Congolese Nationalists (Renaco) of jean Pierre Bemba, is in second place with 45 seats. The remainder of the seats are captured by other parties and independent candidates.

It is important to remember that these two major coalitions are coalitions of convenience, there is no guarantee that they are likely to hold. In fact, one can expect much "horse trading" as the final results are reported.