The ongoing publication of partial results from the 29 October runoff presidential election between President Joseph Kabila and Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba continues to receive lots of attention in Kinshasa newspapers.

Citing a source close to the IEC, Le Phare, which sees that announcement as "imminent", says it could even "take place this weekend".

Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre Bemba yesterday sent the IEC two separate letters denouncing "irregularities," Le Phare also reports.

Specifically, Bemba denounced, among other things, fraud involving "the injection of bogus ballot papers into the compilation centre in Bandundu, as well as irregularities and abnormalities observed in Lodja and Lusambo in Kasaï Oriental province," according to Le Potentiel.

In the same connection, Le Phare writes: "On the basis of reports from his representatives in the Bandundu province, Jean-Pierre Bemba states that around 6000 additional ballot papers have been injected into the polling stations # 3286 and 3489 by three members of the IEC's liaison office."

Also referring to Bemba's letters to the IEC president, Le Potentiel notes that "In certain polling stations and centres, IEC officials refused to provide copies of the vote minutes to witnesses for [Bemba's] Union pour la Nation [coalition]".

In Le Potentiel's view, "the problem posed is a serious one" and it requires "an equally serious and direct response".

"A well-argued response by the Independent Electoral Commission would not only add to its credibility but also convince any complainant," Le Potentiel says, adding that whatever the electoral officials do, they should give " those who possibly guilty of electoral misconduct no cause for believing their actions are justified."

"People in Kinshasa are getting agitated," as the announcement of full provisional results from the presidential polls approaches, Le Palmarès says.

It says President "Kabila's entourage has accused the Bemba camp of flooding the capital with leaflets [designed to] provoke riots or even lootings."

It says "Tensions are rising between Kabila and Bemba's camps, boding no good" and leading people to "fear the worst after the proclamation of the [poll] results."

But, echoing a warning by Lieutenant-Colonel Thierry Fusalba, spokesman for the European Force in the DRC (EUFOR), L'Observateur writes: "whoever tries to engage the people in violent protest against the poll results or to use the people in order to contest the presidential poll results, or in looting and killing other people, will find himself faced with confronted by MONUC and the [Congolese] military and police, with EUFOR backing them if MONUC requests it".