1) Prez returns to Kin; 2) Riot at Limete; and 3) CENI resumes publication of legislative election results

1) Prez returns to Kin

Joseph Kabila finally returned to the Congolese capital in the afternoon of Wednesday, January 25, after a month-long absence. As usual, he was seen at the wheel of his SUV in the middle of the presidential motorcade.

Kabila's absence fueled wild rumors on Kinshasa Radio-Trottoir--especially as he and his wife failed to appear at Mzee Laurent Kabila's mausoleum on January 16, the 11th anniversary of the latter's assassination. And three days prior to the president's return, two Kinshasa dailies had beseeched the president to make a public appearance or statement so as to halt those rumors.

It turns out that Kabila was in seclusion at Lubumbashi--not in China, as Radio-Trottoir had it. A senior military officer in the know told me that Kabila was at his farm in the provincial capital of Katanga, "resting and heavily consulting" for his second term. Adding that the oncoming government will be mostly made up of "technocrats." He explained this by the fact that the "presidential majority" will be somewhat thinnish in the National Assembly and any appointment to a ministerial position of any MP would further erode that razor thin majority. In my view, this assessment doesn't square, however, with the way the new National Assembly is shaping up. Kabila's PPRD alone is emerging as rhe the first political bloc in Parliament--and, with the more than 200 allied parties who'd each won seats in the National Assembly, the "presidential majority" would still retain a comfortable majority.

2) Riot at Limete

A small and short riot erupted around midday on Thursday, January 26, at Limete commune, close to the residence of ghost president Etienne Tshisekedi. As a matter-of-fact, yesterday was the day Tshisekedi had set at his recent press briefing for the "people" to march him to the "Palais de la Nation," the presidential office! A tropicalized version of the Arab Spring, as it were. Which shows that Tshisekedi is now lost in  cloud-cuckoo-land...

About a hundred hardcore Tshisekedi supporters showed up at the police cordon at Limete and were clubbed and tear-gassed...

3) CENI resumes publication of election results

Yesterday night, CENI resumed the publication of provisional results of the legislative election in a live radio and television broadcast aired by RTNC, the government-owned channel. All the board members of the national commission read in turn the results to the three dozens or so journos gathered at CENI headquarters on Boulevard du 30 Juin, in downtown Kinshasa. CENI Chair Rev Daniel Ngoy Mulunda was upbeat and in the mood for jokes.

But before releasing the results, Rev Mulunda was in a grim mood when he made the stunning announcement that the results of 44 "compilation centers" were simply voided for disturbances caused by MP candidates and members of various political parties. He also announced that 30 MP candidates who caused those disturbances will be deferred to the courts of law. In the meanwhile, their candidacies have been irretrievably voided.

The results showed that Kabila's PPRD was in the lead, closely followed by UDPS whose leader, Etienne Tshisekedi, has uncannily deemed this very legislative election null and void! Jean-Pierre Bemba's MLC has now been downgraded to the third political force in Parliament.

In Kinshasa, the only constituency whose results were published was the "Constituency of Kinshasa-2: Funa." Here, there were some dramatic wins by members of the opposition. Former anti-Kabila and pro-Tshisekedi TV political analyst Basile Polongo Pongo aka "Ndeko" [Brother] Basile is said to have trounced the other candidates--though there was no way to ascertain that fact as CENI chose this time around to release the names of the winning candidates by alphabetical order, without any mention of the number of votes garnered by each candidate. The other Kabila's foe (and Vital Kamerhe's supporter) to win in the constituency of Kinshasa Funa is Ne Nsemi, the leader of the banned Bakongo separatist cargo cult called "Bundu dia Kongo" aka "Bundu dia Mayala." Instead of running in his ethnic stronghold in the Bas-Congo province, the tribal sect leader chose to run in Kinshasa Funa constituency, which has a sizeable Bakongo population. To run in Funa, Ne Nsemi made up a makeshift party called "Pax Congo."  Despite these gains made by the opposition, PPRD had one of its most vocal stalwarts, MP Francis Kalombo, the head of that party's youth wing, re-elected in Funa.

The results of the three remaining Kinshasa constituencies will be published Monday--thus bringing to a close, at least at CENI's end, the publication of the results of the legislative election. The Supreme Court of Justice will then publish the final results after making rulings on challenges brought before it by various candidates and political parties.

On a personal note, in my hometown of Kisangani, I hail the win of my former boss, businessman and provincial deputy Frédéric Apaka Tombila (owner of the company "New Pop s.p.r.l.). The bicycle cabbie Awenze also won as well as the current Economy Minister and former chief spy Jean-Pierre Darwezi.