Unsuprisingly, the main stories in today's Kinshasa press are all related to the second and final round of DR Congo presidential election which was held yesterday all over the country.

On Sunday, 29 October, as they went to the ballot box to select the country's first democratically president in more that 40 years, Congolese voters demonstrated a sense "discipline, dignity and responsibility", in the way they did in July's first round of voting, Le Phare notes. The daily paper however mentions "a weak voter turn-out in the East [of the country], while in the West, torrential rains in Kinshasa and Bas-Congo province were an inconvenience."

Fearing that Sunday's vote would now be followed by "a war of [early voting] trends and [related] speculation", as was the case after July's first round vote, Forum des As warns that that supporters of Joseph Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba with "the complicity of their witnesses at the polling stations are apt to use their television and radio channels to announce trends favourable to [their respective candidates]". Each camp, the paper says, "will want to announce fancy figures [claiming victory] ...and manipulate[ing] public opinion."

In related news, Le Palmarès, citing top election official Appolinaire Malumalu, writes that luckily, the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) will take "all steps necessary to speed up the result publication process". Malumalu said "the results could be known within ten days", according to Le Palmarès.

The Congolese people, for their part, "performed their side of the contract by responsibly going to the polls in the hope of definitively turning a sombre page" in their country's history, Le Potentiel notes. This represented a "strong signal sent out to political actors" that they should adopt "a responsible attitude by bowing to the verdict of the electorate as expressed through the ballot box," according to Le Potentiel. The candidates should refrain from using "any subterfuges to justify any poor [electoral] performance". The most important thing is "being able to look beyond victory or defeat so that the losers and winners together can face up to the challenges of national reconstruction".

Meanwhile, La Référence Plus reports, the two candidates in Sunday's presidential runoff election have "signed a mutual guarantee agreement [whereby] the winner offers to protect the loser's physical integrity, property and financial assets". In addition, "the looser will be allowed freedom of movement as well as bodyguards, [in exchange for his] pledge to use not force but legal channels in any challenge to the election results," the paper adds.

In related news, L'Avenir notes: "Kabila and Bemba have pledged to accept the verdict of the ballot box." But the real "test for the candidates' commitment will come with the proclamation of the second presidential round results," according to the paper.

Hoping that "Kabila, Bemba and their lieutenants will respect the spate of agreements they have signed," La Référence Plus says it would unfortunate "should violence erupt on 19 November, the day when [IEC president Appolinaire] Malumalu is scheduled to announce the official results from the ballot".