General elections were held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 30 July 2006 for the President of the Republic and all 500 seats of the National Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament. They were the first relatively free multiparty elections since 1960, just before independence from Belgium, and the first since the overthrow of longtime leader Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997. Incumbent president Joseph Kabila, who led the transitional government formed after the Second Congo War in 2003, ran as an independent candidate and defeated Jean-Pierre Bemba of the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC). Kabila was inaugurated for his first term under the country's new constitution on 6 December 2006.
The polls were boycotted by the veteran opposition leader, Étienne Tshisekedi, and his party Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UPDS), who complained of fraud. The international community donated $460 million to fund the elections and deployed the world's largest UN peacekeeping operation, MONUC, to help the stability of the election. While the election was conducted relatively peacefully, the collection of the results proved chaotic, leading to armed clashes and growing fears of instability. As a result, DRC election officials announced that they would begin to release partial results earlier instead of only announcing the final count on 20 August.
On 20 August, the CEI released its full provisional presidential election results, indicating that neither candidate was able to secure a majority, which led to a run-off election on 29 October. On that day, voters went to the polls to vote in:
On 15 November, the CEI released its full provisional results for the presidential election's second round, indicating that Joseph Kabila had won with 58.05 percent. The results were, however, rejected by Bemba who claimed irregularities. On 27 November, the DRC Supreme Court confirmed that Kabila had won the election, and he was sworn in as president on 6 December.
The election results reflected the east–west divide in the DRC, with the first round seeing Kabila receiving at least 70 percent of the vote in the eastern provinces of Orientale, Katanga, South Kivu, North Kivu and Maniema. Bemba received more votes in the west, especially in Kinshasa, Bas-Congo, Kasaï-Occidental, and Équateur. The second round also saw a similar split and Bemba received nearly 100 percent of the vote in his home province of Équateur.
In the parliamentary elections Kabila's People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) emerged as the largest party, winning 111 of the 500 seats, followed by Bemba's MLC with 64 seats. Kabila's coalition, the Alliance of the Presidential Majority (AMP), was later joined by several other parties, notably Antoine Gizenga's Unified Lumumbist Party and Nzanga Mobutu's Union of Mobutist Democrats, giving it a majority in the National Assembly.
Registration and voter turnout
Over 25 million people registered to vote for the elections, in a country where the exact population is not known, but is likely in excess of 60 million. The Independent Electoral Commission (CEI or La Commission Electorale Indépendante) reported a voter turnout of 80 percent.
Candidates
Thirty-three people registered as candidates for the Presidency and 9,000 for the 500 seats in the federal parliament.
The initial presidential favourites were Joseph Kabila, the incumbent, and Jean-Pierre Bemba, one of the four vice-presidents.
Campaign
Joseph Kabila and Azarias Ruberwa
In the months leading up to the general election, political actors within the transitional government's presidential sphere became increasingly active, making their campaign strategies more visible. As voter identification and registration advanced, top officials relied on public appearances, provincial tours, and targeted political messaging to consolidate support. President Joseph Kabila placed himself at the center of these efforts by beginning with a high-profile voter registration in Kinshasa on 31 August 2005, an event that coincided with the registration of Vice Presidents Azarias Ruberwa and Jean-Pierre Bemba and effectively marked the unofficial start of campaigning, before traveling to Matadi in Bas-Congo, where Vice President Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi had already mobilized local support and encouraged the "Ne Kongo" electorate to back the PPRD. The PPRD also intensified its presence through regional initiatives. Deputy Secretary-General Marie-Ange Lukiana Mufwankolo, accompanied by Kinshasa governor Jean Kimbunda, led a strong campaign in Kikwit alongside popular musician Werrason. As part of this outreach, Lukiana donated large quantities of fuel to Société Nationale d'Électricité (SNEL) for the reactivation of the town's thermal power plant, an act that generated significant goodwill among residents of a region where electricity was scarce. During his own field visits, Kabila drew large crowds at registration centers and along the streets of Matadi, publicly praising the conduct of voter enrollment and quietly assessing the political climate in Bas-Congo.
Ruberwa, head of the RCD, shaped his campaign around institutional rhetoric and symbolic actions, notably registering as a voter in Kinshasa, far from his native South Kivu and the party's traditional support base, and presenting this gesture as a call for citizens to move beyond ethnic or tribal loyalties and instead judge candidates by competence, patriotism, governance, and experience. The RCD itself had been born out of the early stages of the Second Congo War, triggered in July 1998 when President Laurent-Désiré Kabila, suspecting a coup plot, removed Rwandan General James Kabarebe from his command and expelled all RPA troops, provoking Rwanda and Uganda to mobilize support for a new rebellion. On 2 August 1998, mutinous Congolese soldiers, backed by the RPA, Uganda's UPDF, Burundi's FAB, and remnants of Mobutu's ex-FAZ, formed the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD) as a rebel group, with its military branch organized as the Armée Nationale Congolaise (ANC). By March 1999, rivalries between Rwanda and Uganda produced a schism that split the movement into a Kigali-aligned RCD-Goma and a Uganda-aligned RCD-ML, while the rebellion became notorious for massacres of civilians, attacks on refugee settlements, and acts of terror across the Kivus before formally transitioning into a political party in 2003.
During his campaign, Ruberwa used the party's seventh-anniversary celebrations, timed shortly after voter registration in Kinshasa, to portray the RCD as a defender of democratic norms during the transition, instructing party members to monitor electoral fairness and expressing readiness to engage with the UDPS, including support for restoring Étienne Tshisekedi's party to full legal recognition and its claim to the UDPS emblem. His attendance at the closing ceremony at Stade Cardinal Malula also broadened his urban appeal in Kinshasa.
Jean-Pierre Bemba
Although Jean-Pierre Bemba, like the other presidential figures, completed his voter registration in Kinshasa, the MLC leader often projected a deliberately ambivalent posture during moments of heightened political tension, most notably on 30 June 2005, when he spoke as though he were not part of the governing structure, openly questioning the government's official death toll from protest-related violence and demanding accountability.
Inside the MLC, electoral preparations took on a formal structure through an ideological seminar held from 1 to 5 August. Even though Bemba kept a low profile, his influence permeated the discussions, and at the meeting's close, Executive Secretary Thomas Luhaka set out the party's goals: winning at every electoral tier and promoting the rule of law and development, framed as the core principles that had justified the party's earlier armed struggle.
Conduct
At least six people were killed in violent street protests in the run-up to the election.
As of 30 July, most polling stations were reported to have opened on time, with the election remaining peaceful. The election closely followed an agreement with Ituri militias on 28 July, an agreement which MONUC has stated "greatly enhances the security situation in the province in the lead-up to the historic DRC elections."
Violence in Kasai
Presumed supporters of Étienne Tshisekedi burned polling stations and voting materials in the city of Mbuji-Mayi, capital of East Kasai province, on Sunday to prevent the elections being held. The elections were extended until Monday and riot police were deployed. The Economist stated President Kabila was "making full use of his control of the security services and his monopoly of the state media" to secure the election. A report by Human Rights Watch detailed violence in the campaign. In one raid, "agents of the special police" stormed a Christian television station, arresting a pastor critical of the political process, beating technicians and destroying the broadcasting equipment. The government also imprisoned a journalist for "insulting the head of state." Shooting of protestors by soldiers was routine.
Fraud allegations
On the day of the election three vice-presidents and candidates complained of vote rigging. Bemba, Ruberwa and Z'Ahidi said "Perhaps we are heading for a masquerade or a parody of elections".
Clashes in Kinshasa
Starting on 20 August heavy armed clashes took place in Kinshasa between forces loyal to Kabila and Bemba. Both sides accused the other of starting the fighting.
On 21 August, while a meeting between Bemba and foreign ambassadors representing the International Committee Accompanying the Transition to Democracy (CIAT) was taking place in Kinshasa, clashes broke out between Kabila and Bemba forces, and Bemba's residence, which hosted the meeting, came under attack. According to one diplomat in the residence, it included artillery and heavy machine gun fire. Bemba and the diplomats were moved to the safety of the residence's shelter and there were no reports of injuries. Evacuation plans for the diplomats stranded in the shelter were reportedly being drawn up. Bemba's private helicopter was said to have been destroyed in the attack. Several hours later, the UN spokesperson in the DRC, Jean-Tobias Okala, announced that the foreign diplomats, including MONUC chief William Swing, had been successfully evacuated to UN headquarters by Spanish and Uruguayan peace-keeping forces after a top Kabila general and UN forces commander cooperated to allow them safe passage.
Once the rescue had been completed, fighting in the DRC capital ensued, and on 22 August, two DRC army tanks were reported to be heading toward the latest area of fighting. The EU began sending more peacekeeping troops to Kinshasa and MONUC chief Swing called for an immediate ceasefire. Later on 22 August, the third day of fighting, the two sides signed a tentative ceasefire agreement to withdraw from the centre of Kinshasa. AFP reported that "the deal was signed by representatives of Kabila and Bemba, DRC army, the UN mission MONUC, European force EUFOR and European police mission EUROPOL, meeting as a "working group" at MONUC's Kinshasa headquarters." At least three people died during Tuesday's fighting. Sixteen people were reported killed in the fighting which saw heavy artillery and machine gun fire, with police reporting more bodies found and the death toll expected to rise considerably. Later in the day, Interior Minister Theophile Mbemba Fundu placed the death toll for the week at 23 killed, 43 injured. As of 24 August, the ceasefire remained in effect, with army forces loyal to the two candidates remaining in barracks, but the situation remained unstable. Later in the day, police fired shots in the air to disperse angry crowds demanding that two of Bemba's television stations be reopened. South African Airways announced that flights to Kinshasa would be resumed on 25 August after being suspended since the fighting began.
On 26 August, Kabila and Bemba announced that the two had agreed to meet. Later in the day, however, tensions were heightened as Bemba failed to attend the meeting. On 29 August, MONUC announced that representatives of Kabila and Bemba were due to meet under UN supervision. Later in the day, it was reported that Kabila and Bemba themselves met for the first time since the clashes began. On 30 August, MONUC announced that the meeting resulted in the establishment of two joint sub-commissions, one to conduct an independent investigation of the clashes, and the other to devise rules which will prevent violence from recurring during 29 October run-off election.
Results
Preliminary results were expected on 2 August, but due to the remoteness of many polling stations, results were not expected to be finalised until three weeks after the polls closed. While South African observers approved the election, other monitors expressed concern, including those from the Carter Center. MONUC reported that on 3 August, on the third day of "chaotic poll-counting, a suspicious fire at a major Kinshasa election center deepened concerns over the transparency of the results." According to MONUC, while the election itself may have met requirements, "the process of collecting results from 50,000 polling stations had become chaotic." On 6 August, MONUC predicted that President Joseph Kabila appeared most likely to win, with Jean-Pierre Bemba finishing second.
On 5 August, thousands in eastern DRC were fleeing clashes between the DRC army and forces affiliated with General Laurent Nkunda. DRC officials reported that two government soldiers were killed in the fighting. According to The Independent, Nkunda, who is "widely believed to be in third place in the race for the DRC's presidency," stated that he would respect the results, but along with over 30 other candidates, expressed "determination to resist results which are perceived to be unfair." Nkunda, who remained the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by the DRC government "for alleged atrocities against civilians committed since 2004," expressed a willingness to negotiate with the winner of the election, but also, determination to resist any military attack. MONUC spokesperson reported that the peacekeeping force had begun patrolling in the area and that fighting has become limited to isolated incidents.