Incumbent President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Joseph Kabila had won a presidential run-off, defeating Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba, the country's electoral commission declared on Wednesday.

According to the election result, Kabila netted 9,436,800 votes, about 58 percent of the valid ballots, against Bemba's 6,819,800 votes, nearly 42 percent.

The electoral commission said a total of 16.61 million eligible voters cast ballots in 50,000 polling stations nationwide, and the turnout was roughly 65 percent.

Kabila first assumed the DRC's top post when his father Laurent Kabila was assassinated in 2001.

The historic Oct. 29 voting was the first multi-party election in the strife-ridden county in more than four decades. It was also considered the culmination of a peace process that started four years ago to end the DRC's 1998-2003 civil war in which Bemba led a rebel faction before joining a power-sharing government.

(Xinhua News Agency November 16, 2006)