Congo's President Joseph Kabila won a presidential election with 58.05 per cent of the votes, according to provisional results on Wednesday, but the coalition of his rival Jean-Pierre Bemba rejected the result.
International peacekeepers stepped up patrols in the capital, and UN armoured vehicles and jeeps from a European Union force raced round the streets of Kinshasa where supporters of the candidates have fought twice in the past three months.
"Therefore, having garnered the absolute majority of votes in the second round, Mr Joseph Kabila Kabange is declared president of Democratic Republic of Congo," election commission chief Apollinaire Malu Malu said in a broadcast announcing the results of the October 29th run-off poll.
The result, giving Mr Bemba 41.95 per cent, still has to be confirmed by the Supreme Court.
"Our position has not changed. These are results that will never be credible. We will hold a political meeting tomorrow before saying more," Joseph Olenghankoy, a spokesman for Bemba's Union for the Nation coalition, told Reuters.
Small groups of people gathered in some of Kinshasa's richer suburbs or drove around in vehicles honking horns and cheering but streets were deserted across much of the teeming city, whose poor masses largely support Mr Bemba.
The coalition had already rejected partial results showing Kabila winning. They said there had been "systematic cheating" in the vote count and questioned the credibility of the electoral commission, raising tensions in the city.
It said provisional results conflicted with data collected by its own observers at polling stations showing Mr Bemba had 52.5 percent of votes.