Election day

They did it.

A nation which suffered nothing but dictatorship, civil wars and poverty for many decades is today almost standing on its feet after they voted for the first time (for real) to take control of their future. Of course, Congo is far from being 100% safe, wealthy and healthy but it was a very moving day yesterday, even for us foreigners to this land. There were glitches for sure but it went incredibly smoothly when you consider which state the country is in. So today is a day of hope and you can see it on people's faces in the street.

It will take a few weeks to get the official results, but the real question is whether Kabila will need a second round or not to win. It all started very early in the day. The voting stations were opening at 6am but everybody turned up at 5am, queues were very long but all went through in the end. The ballot itself was the size of a poster and had to be folded carefully to get into the box.

As for security, the police showed up in their brand new Robocop equipment donated by Tony Blair.