Vote-counting started in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday after the vast, war-scarred state turned out to choose a democratically elected president for the first time in more than four decades.
Voting proceeded mainly in calm, with only scattered reports of violence after a tense campaigning period.
"We did not see the same level of emotion as in the first round," said Sylvie van den Wildenberg, a spokeswoman for the UN mission in the country (MONUC).
PHOTO: EPA
"People were not running round from dawn, but came to vote calmly in quite large numbers throughout the day," she said.
More than 25 million citizens were registered to vote, choosing between President Joseph Kabila -- the favorite to win after he took a lead in July's first round -- and Jean-Pierre Bemba, a businessman and former rebel.
In Kinshasa, where EU troops helped police the process, the start of voting saw torrential rain.
Elsewhere, in the northern province of Equateur, one person was killed when fighting broke out over reported ballot-stuffing.
The election was hailed as a success overall, however. The European Commission congratulated its peacekeeping force, EUFOR, and MONUC for their part in the "successful rollout of polling."
Election officials and observers manned 50,045 polling stations across the country.
Stations in the east closed an hour earlier than the scheduled shutdown at 5pm in the west. Opening hours were extended for centers affected by the earlier rain.
Counting started immediately after the close of polls, although provisional results were not expected until Nov. 19.
Fears of violence had run high after a rocky electoral campaign period studded with almost daily clashes in the provinces and after fighting in Kinshasa in August between the presidential guard and Bemba's militia, which claimed at least 23 lives.
The two candidates had pledged not to resort to violence and called on the voters to follow their peaceful example.
The chief of the Independent Electoral Commission, Apollinaire Malu Malu, said serious incidents were reported only in Equateur, where one person was killed.
Police said the violence erupted in Bumba, a border town on the Congo river, when a polling station chief was caught stuffing a ballot box on Kabila's behalf and angry Bemba supporters retaliated, leading to clashes with police.
Malu Malu added that 12 polling stations were ransacked in Bumba and two in Bikoro, where voting would be rescheduled.
More than 1,000 international and 40,000 Congolese observers were monitoring the polls, while some 80,000 policemen, 17,600 UN troops and 1,200 EU soldiers were helping with security.
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