CONGO: Kinshasa was a ville morte or dead town yesterday as the population came to terms with the results of the country's presidential elections, which were announced four days early in a bid to avoid violence.
The independent electoral commission released the results on Tuesday, 24 hours after an alliance behind outgoing vice president Jean Pierre Bemba's candidacy denounced the country's first multiparty elections in 40 years as an "electoral hold-up".
The run-off between Mr Bemba and Joseph Kabila, both former guerrilla leaders, has seen the latter emerge victorious with 58 per cent of the vote.
In an address to the nation last night, the president-elect appealed for calm and said he would be a president "for all Congolese".
The supreme court may confirm Mr Kabila (35) as the winner of the presidential race as soon as this Sunday. However, last night Mr Bemba rejected the results, saying he would use all constitutional and democratic means to overturn them.
Mr Kabila takes the helm of a state deeply divided by a five-year civil war that is blamed for four million deaths from starvation and disease.
The 10th-largest nation in the world, the Democratic Republic of Congo's four corners are more easily reached from neighbouring states than from within its own borders.
Formerly Zaire, the country has been a haven for rebel groups from those same neighbouring states, and harbours vast mineral and natural wealth. Zaire's collapse in 1997 triggered a regional conflict involving, at its height, nine African nations.
Mr Bemba's Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) launched a rebellion against Laurent Kabila's despotic regime in 1999, with the backing of Uganda.
That campaign pitted him directly against his presidential rival, Joseph Kabila, eldest son of Laurent, then in command of the Congolese armed forces.
A 1960s revolutionary turned businessman, Laurent Kabila was co-opted by Rwanda and Uganda in 1996 to depose Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who had held power for 32 years.
In 1998, an invasion by Uganda and Rwanda and an insurgency in the east threatened to dislodge the new regime until Angola and Zimbabwe intervened in support of Kabila's government.
In 2001, Laurent Kabila was assassinated in his Kinshasa residence. Joseph Kabila took the helm and steered the country into a three-year transition from which it is now emerging.
Branded as the mzee or wise man by Mobutu's former PR guru, whom he also hired, Laurent Kabila's presence can still be felt in Kinshasa today.
It was certainly felt in the Lubumbashi salon of Kinshasa's Grand Hotel last night, as the alliance behind Joseph Kabila's presidential bid celebrated his victory.
Named after the capital of Congo's copper-rich province of Katanga, from where the Kabila family draws much of its backing, the noisy function room was in stark contrast to Kinshasa's deserted streets outside.
As a TV station loyal to Mr Kabila beamed the party east, a war-time photograph of Kabila father and son together was circulated by the misty-eyed faithful.
Kisses were laid on the image of the president-elect's head.
A 32-year-old translator, Mike Kanku, who was an officer in the rebel forces during Laurent Kabila's eight-month march to power, lamented the loss of the capital.
"It is a great pity we didn't manage to bring everyone with us," he said, "we will try to bring them in now after the election." However, many "Kinois" - as Kinshasa residents are known - were sceptical yesterday.
Jacob, the son of a Methodist preacher who finances his studies by selling washing powder on the streets, netting him around $10 a day, was disconsolate.
"This should be a celebration," he said, "but instead we have la ville morte, a ghost town. We're not happy.
"Bemba won the election with 52.5 per cent. We can't accept these false results."
The overwhelming presence of United Nations troops on the streets of the Congolese capital yesterday prevented any trouble, but the real test will come over the next few days and weeks.
Mr Bemba's MLC militia must now decide whether to disarm, integrate with the Congolese army or join the ranks of thousands of soldiers in dozens of militia throughout Congo, in defiance of the nascent state. Even a split in the movement could bring his well-trained troops directly into conflict with the UN force here.