Today's Kinshasa press comments are largely devoted to presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba's declaration yesterday announcing he does not accept the provisional results from the second and final round of the presidential election.

Jean-Pierre Bemba, leader of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) and presidential candidate in the 29 Oct. runoff election, on Thursday, 16 November, reacted to Wednesday's publication of the provisional results by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). In a televised declaration, Bemba "contests these results," Le Potentiel reports. Bemba, the paper specifies, rejects the poll outcome on the grounds that "the IEC did not, as agreed, notify the candidates of the results in order to allow them to react within a 48-hour period ...and did not responded to the six requests [Bemba] had put in" to the IEC.

One of those requests complained about "1,481,291 persons, representing around 10 percent of total votes cast, who had voted outside their constituencies," Le Potentiel notes. Vice President Bemba "pledged to use all legal channels to ensure the will of the people is respected," according to Le Potentiel, and "to recover his rights" by referring the case for consideration by the Supreme Court, according to La Tempête des Tropiques.

However, according to La Référence Plus, it is "unlikely that the Union for the Nation's candidate would win the case even as he speaks of irregularities with respect to 1,500,000 voters casting their ballots outside their constituencies". Unlikely because "the gap between [the two rival candidates, incumbent Joseph] Kabila and Bemba is more than two million votes," the paper says.

In reality, La Référence Plus goes no saying, "the incumbent's victory was already apparent in the voter registration and identification operation." "While, in the country's east, that operation was well-run in the country's east and the people motivated to participate...," the paper notes, "those in the west and centre saw their margin for manoeuvred reduced by a boycott call from [Etienne Tshisekedi's] UDPS [party]".

However, it remains to be seen what Jean-Pierre Bemba's reaction will be if his "request [is turned down by] the Supreme Court," L'Observateur writes. The paper, citing experts, says Bemba "will respect the commitments his representatives made on his behalf during negotiations..., " meaning "to renounce all attempts to challenge the poll results through the use of force, mass mobilisation or other forms of violent action," it says.

"If the MLC leader had gracefully acknowledged his defeat ...he thereby would have carved a place for himself in history...," according to L'Avenir.

"The dice are [already] cast...," says to Le Potentiel, adding that the country now needs to "meet the challenge of national reconstruct." This can be achieved only if "there is a new way of doing politics in the DRC... [the current one being] more than ever dominated by corrupt practices," the paper says. It says the elected president "would be well-advised if he would take all these considerations into account, while remaining open to criticism and avoiding withdrawing into a shell of susceptibility, exclusion and intolerance." These are the "evils that have caused the downfall of this colossal country, now rated one of the poorest and most indebted countries in the world," Le Potentiel concludes.