On Tuesday, the main focus of Kinshasa press commentary remains on last Sunday's runoff presidential race pitting incumbent President Joseph Kabila against his Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba.

After casting their votes Sunday to pick their first fully democratically elected president since independence 1960, the Congolese are now waiting for the poll results – or more precisely, are "looking to known the early trends," according to L'Observateur. The daily paper writes: "In Kinshasa since yesterday [Monday], supporters of the two candidates with notepads and pencils have been flocking to polling stations and taking notes of the results posted" there. They are trying to "get a sense of the trends in Kinshasa...," Le Phare explains.

Le Phare, after touring polling stations across the Congolese capital, notes: "the first figures posted show Jean-Pierre Bemba ahead". "The only difference is that [Bemba's] Union for the Nation [coalition] has clearly done better" than in July's first round, Le Phare says.

By contrast, L'Avenir reports that Joseph Kabila has "largely improved his score in Kinshasa". Echoing this view, Le Palmarès writes: "The two candidates appear to have neutralised each other in the capital."

In a piece entitled "The war of numbers and trends has started", Le Potentiel notes that "there is some self-satisfaction on the part of both rival camps...which amounts to nothing but a self-proclamation [of victory]." This is in reference to a recent interview for Radio France International, in which, according to Le Potentiel, the secretaries-general François Mwamba of Bemba's MLC party and Vital Kamerhe of Kabila's PPRD party, "lapsed into such self-proclamation, with both claiming to have evidence of victory for their respective candidates." And this is in spite of "the Act of Engagement they had signed two days before, expressing their determination to leave it to the Independent Electoral Commission [to announce any results]," Le Potentiel says. So "will [this Act of Engagement] be respected?" L'Observateur wonders.

Meanwhile, the president of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Appolinaire Malumalu, has "warn[ed] against the publication of false results," according to L'Observateur. The paper quotes Mr Malumalu as recalling that "the publication of provisional results is the exclusive responsibility of the IEC".

In this respect, Le Potentiel suggests that the two candidates and their lieutenants should "calmly and responsibly wait for [the results] and avoid any unnecessary provocations." Likewise, the paper says, the IEC should demonstrate "a behaviour that would not arouse suspicions or distrust in either camp".