Congo leader retains lead in vote runoff

KINSHASA, Congo --Incumbent Joseph Kabila retained a commanding lead Friday in war-weary Congo's presidential runoff with about two-thirds of the vote counted in a tense ballot tally that is being challenged by his opponent's supporters.

The latest results on the Web site of the Independent Electoral Commission showed Kabila with nearly 61 percent of the vote, compared with nearly 40 percent for Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba.

The vote is the culmination of a four-year transition process meant to transform the troubled Central African nation into a democracy after decades of dictatorship and war that killed up to 4 million people and drew in armies from a half-dozen African nations.

Many Congolese had never cast ballots before a constitutional referendum in December that set the stage for elections. The winner will become the country's first democratically elected president since independence from Belgium in 1960.

Tensions, however, have been high since August, when forces loyal to both candidates fought three days of gunbattles in the streets of the capital, Kinshasa, that killed about two dozen people. Results eventually showed Kabila with 45 percent of the vote, compared with Bemba's 20 percent.

Earlier this week, Bemba's aides called two news conferences to complain of "systematic cheating" in the vote count.

In a small election protest Friday, dozens of supporters of Bemba, a former rebel leader who is Kabila's rival, set tires ablaze to block a road in downtown Kinshasa. They also burned a flag carrying a picture of Kabila and threw stones at vehicles.

"We're angry. We cannot accept that the Bemba camp allow these irregularities to carry on," said one of the protesters, Gaylord Ngoy.

One stone hit the windshield of a German vehicle in the 1,200-troop European Union force sent to bolster U.N. peacekeepers.

No one was hurt, spokesman Lt. Col. Thierry Fusalba said.

The troops have increased patrols in the capital, he said, since "tensions are mounting as we approach the publication of results."

The protesters dispersed when police wielding batons waded in.

Preliminary results are expected by Nov. 19 and a formal announcement by Nov. 30. Both Kabila and Bemba had pledged to accept the results.

------

Associated Press writer Eddy Isango in Kinshasa, Congo, contributed to this report.

------

On the Net:

http://www.cei-rdc.cd Web site of the Independent Electoral Commission.