The Independent National Electoral Commission announced Friday that Mr. Kabila won re-election with 48,95% of the votes.

Etienne Tshisekedi was credited with 32,33%, Vital Kamerhe with 7,74%, Leon Kengo wa Dondo with 4,95%, Mbusa Nyamwisi with 1,72%, Nzanga Mobutu with 1,75%, with the remaining 5 candidates garnering less than 1% each.

The INEC said that 58,81% of the 32,024,640 registered voters had cast ballots in the presidential election.

The results, expected on Tuesday, were delayed until Friday. The INEC said it needed more time to cross-check all the data and to ensure more transparency.

The INEC also published the results compiled from polling stations on voting day. The electoral commission had said it will published the more detailed data so that the candidates’ observers and other national and international observers can verify that the count obtained on voting day was the same being published in the final results. On voting day, accredited observers had to sign off on the summary of results at a polling station after the votes were counted.

Announcing the results, Pastor Daniel Ngoy Mulunda, the chairman of the INEC, asked candidates to remember that in each election there are winners and losers.

Reacting to the announcement, Mr. Tshisekedi told Radio Okapi that although he rejected the results, he was calling on his supporters to remain calm and wait for his instructions.

Authorities have increased police presence in Kinshasa and other opposition strongholds across DR Congo since Tuesday, the day the results of the presidential election were first expected before being delayed until Friday.

The November 28 presidential and parliamentary elections were the second democratically held elections in DR Congo. Mr. Kabila, 40, won the first free and fair elections in the country in 2006 with 58% of the votes. He first came to power in 2001 after the death of his father, former president Laurent Desire Kabila.

The Supreme Court will proclaim the official winner on Dec. 17, after reviewing all appeals resulting from the election. The next president is set to be sworn in on December 20.

Read full results on the INEC’s website

The chairman of the INEC, Daniel Ngoy Mulunda, said during a press conference in Kinshasa that the publication of the list confirms the commitment of the institution to hold free, democratic, transparent, and peaceful elections in the time allowed by the Constitution.

The applications of Jean Andeka Djamba, Adam Bombole , Joseph Kabila, Nicéphore Kasese Malela, Vital Kamerhe, Oscar Kashala, Leon Kengo wa Dondo, Mbusa Nyamwisi, Zanga Mobutu, Josue Mukendi, and Etienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba were accepted the INEC.

Under the provisions of the Electoral Law, those whose applications were rejected have until September 19 to file an appeal to the Supreme Court.

As for the publication of the provisional list of candidates for the National Assembly, the INEC said that, due to the influx of applications received on the last day of filing, the list will be published later, after it finishes processing 1134 applications outstanding out of the 7,291 received from those seeking to run for Member of Parliament.

ACP article

By retaining both Adolphe Muzito and Nzanga Mobutu, Joseph Kabila keeps intact a political alliance struck before the second round of the 2006 presidential elections between the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), the Unified Lumumbist Party (PALU) and the Union of Mobutist Democrats (UDEMO).

The government has been trimmed down from 54 members to 43. Alexis Thambwe Mwamba stays on a Foreign Minister, Raymond Tshibanda as Minister of International and Regional Cooperation, Charles Mwando Simba as Minister of National Defense and Veterans Affairs, and Lambert Mende as Minister of Communication and Government spokesman.

Former Finance Minister Atanase Matenda was replaced by Matata Ponyo Mapon. Olivier Kamitatu retains the Ministry of Planing while Celestin Mbuyu becomes new Oil Minister. The new government was announced on state television on Friday night.

President Kabila also reshuffled his cabinet. Former Infrastructure Minister Pierre Lumbi was appointed Special Adviser on National Security and Gustave Beya as new Chief of Staff.

Swiss authorities say that the Congolese government never responded to their requests for proof that the money had been stolen from state funds and thus should be returned to the government.

Mobutu’s family has never relinquished its claim to the money. Mobutu Nzanga, a son of the former president, is one of three Vice-Prime Ministers in the current government headed by Adolphe Muzito. He received 4.8% of the votes cast in the first round of the presidential elections in 2006 and formed an alliance with president Joseph Kabila for the second round. He was the Minister of Agriculture in the previous two governments headed by Antoine Gizenga.