DR Congo court to announce ruling on presidential run-off

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)'s supreme court will announce its ruling on the results of the presidential run-off on Monday, as troops loyal to Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba continued to leave the capital of Kinshasa to ease tensions.

Judge Kalonda Kele said the court ruling would be announced at 5:00 pm local time (1600 GMT) on Monday.

The DRC's electoral commission declared on Nov. 15 that incumbent President Joseph Kabila had won a presidential run-off with 58.5 percent of votes against Bemba, who, however, refused to accept the result and pledged to fight through "all legal means."

The DRC's supreme court has been in session to examine Bemba's appeal since Nov. 20, but was closed for days because of protests by Bemba's supporters in the court room and fire exchanges outside the court.

The supreme court resumed on Friday but found itself bogged down as Bemba's lawyers lodged an objection to question its independence and integrity.

On Saturday, a total of 32 soldiers loyal to Bemba left for a military base in the town of Maluku, 80 km east of Kinshasa, to ease tensions in the capital.

Under Kabila's order, Bemba started to redeploy his troops to Maluku on Thursday after a pro-Bemba protest outside the Supreme Court degenerated into gunfire and looting.

Both Kabila and Bemba retain soldiers directly under their command and they have clashed several times in the capital since the first round of voting in July. About 30 people have been killed in the post-election violence.

Source: Xinhua