The ongoing publication of partial results from the DRC's 29 October runoff presidential election continues to make the headlines of Kinshasa newspapers.

"[Bemba]'s poll numbers, as published by the IEC, do not match those from his electoral witnesses which are also recorded in the minutes" from polling stations, the paper explains.

Illustrating the same point, La Tempête des Tropiques notes: "In Katanga province's Kamina town, where Bemba won 3,011 votes, [the results published by] the IEC give him 2,367 votes..."

The same thing happened "in Kananga, provincial capital of Kasaï Occidental, where [Bemba] has noticed a loss of 3,531 votes," the paper says.

At the same time, "voter turnout rates suddenly are shown to be high in [eastern provinces, namely,] South Kivu, North Kivu, Katanga and Maniema, while in these places the number of cancelled ballots is very high," it says.

Eva Bazaïba, a spokesperson for Bemba's coalition, is quoted in Le Potentiel as saying during a press conference yesterday that these discrepancies are not due "error...but rather to systematic fraud in all polling stations."

Quoting her further, Le Potentiel writes: In revealing the discrepancies in the reported results, the Bemba camp is seeking "not to exacerbate but to ease the tension amongst the Congolese population".

Meanwhile, partial results being released by the electoral commission show Joseph Kabila leading with "65.9 percent of the 6,488,156 votes counted, compared to 34.1 percent for Jean-Pierre Bemba," La Référence Plus reports.

On the basis of results coming in from compilation centres in Kinshasa, "partisans of the outgoing president believe that their favourite candidate can no longer be overtaken by [his challenger] Bemba," the paper says.

This time around, "Joseph Kabila is doing better in the east section of Kinshasa, which is considered a stronghold of [his electoral ally] Antoine Gizenga," it says.

For its part, MONUC, which is "is preparing for both the best- and worst-case scenarios" according to Le Phare, "will oppose anybody seeking to foment trouble after the proclamation of the results".

Meanwhile, Rwandan President "Paul Kagame [has] threaten[ed] to invade the DRC if the Congolese authorities fail to restrict the movements of Rwandan rebel groups at the border between the two countries," Le Palmarès warns.