CENI wraps up publication of election results

CENI wrapped up the publication of legislative election results late
in the evening of yesterday, Wednesday, February 1.

According to AFP, Joseph Kabila's cartel of political parties won a
clear majority, with 260 seats out of a total of 500 seats.

Within the "Presidential Majority," PPRD, Kabila's own party, won 62
seats, thus confirming its position as the country's strongest
party--though it is somehow apparently weakened when compared to the
111 seats it won in the 2006 legislative elections.

I say "apparently" since just before the elections PPRD politicians
created a host of makeshift political parties, a smokescreen,
according to their political foes, behind which to take cover from
voters' fatigue and anger directed at the "unpopular" PPRD.
Smokescreen or not, the tactic worked as many of those parties saw
their candidates elected or re-elected.

Etienne Tshisekedi's UDPS wrests from Jean-Pierre Bemba's MLC (22
seats) the flagship of the opposition with 41 seats. The issue of
whether those newly elected UDPS MPs would boycott the National
Assembly still hangs in the air.

Vital Kamerhe's party UNC is the third political force with 16 seats.