Joseph Kabila: 1,338,199 – 94.64%
Jean-Pierre Bemba: 3,922 – 0.28%

Politics: Joseph Kabila won a resounding victory over Jean-Pierre Bemba in war-torn South Kivu. Located on the opposite side of the country from the capital, close to Rwanda and Uganda, South Kivu is vulnerable to violence by the thousands of armed men who flow in and out of the area. Kabila’s role in bringing the war to an end and his insistence on the departure of foreign groups most likely worked to his advantage in the region. However, the peace brought by the official end of the war in July 2003 has not been a lasting one. The Hutu-Tutsi conflict of Rwanda that first spilled over into South Kivu in 1994 continues to plague the region today, with both Hutu and Tutsi extremists promising to cause problems for the incoming government.

Natural Resources: This province is an area rich in gold and cassiterite (tin ore). However, much of the cassiterite has been illicitly trafficked through neighboring Rwanda. In the past, much of the conflict in the east has been paid for and driven by the quest for the region’s resources. During the war, so many of the DRC’s natural resources were removed by neighboring Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi that the U.N. suggested a temporary embargo on the import or export of cassiterite, coltan, diamonds, gold, pyrochlore, and timber from or to these countries.