JURIST - Paper Chase: DR Congo vice president plans legal challenge to election results

[JURIST] Democratic Republic of Congo [JURIST news archive] Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba [campaign website, in French; Wikipedia profile] said Thursday that he plans to use legal means to challenge the results from last month's run-off election [JURIST report] after officials announced Wednesday that he lost the presidency to Joseph Kabila [BBC profile; PPRD party website, in French] by 16 percentage points. Bemba's supporters [MLC party website] have alleged voting fraud [JURIST report], which has been an issue [JURIST report] throughout the election. UN troops patrolled the streets of the capital and surrounded Bemba's home Thursday to maintain order. Fighting among supporters of the two candidates broke out in July when results were announced after the first round of the election.

In April, a Congolese opposition group tried to ban Kabila from running [JURIST report] in the general elections, the first democratic elections in Congo since 1960, because of his ties to the military. Kabila was a major-general in the Congolese army before succeeding his father as president following the latter's assassination in 2001. AP has more.

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