By David Lewis KINSHASA, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Congo's election commission began releasing partial results on Sunday from last week's presidential run-off to try to stem the flow of rumours and unofficial results circulating in the tense capital. Results from 12 of 169 constituencies were published on the election commission's Web site, giving President Joseph Kabila 68.5 percent of the vote in the race against Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former rebel who is a vice-president in the government. The commission stressed the figures were partial and should not be used to extrapolate a final tally for the election, meant to draw a line under a 1998-2003 war which sparked a humanitarian crisis that has caused four million deaths. The initial results nonetheless confirmed Kabila's huge popularity in his native east, where Swahili-speaking voters credited him with the relative peace. As expected, Bemba was far ahead in the west, highlighting the ethnic nature of the vote. "We will be putting results up every day from now on," said Delion Kimpu Lumpu, a spokesman for the head of the election commission. Kimpu Lumpu said 60 percent of the results had been processed. The final results must be published by Nov. 19 but are expected a week earlier. Apart from pockets of violence, which led to the poll being re-run in several towns this week, millions voted peacefully throughout the vast country, which has known little but dictatorship, war and chaos for the past 40 years. Despite repeated calls from Congolese and international officials to the contrary, rumours and false results have been spread by the media, text messages and e-mails in the former Belgian colony since the Oct. 29 vote. The tension was especially tangible in the capital Kinshasa, which was the scene of heavy fighting between Kabila's and Bemba's private armies for three days after the results of the first round were announced in August. "The election commission has come under pressure to release official figures as this reduces the market for rumour and false results," a Western diplomat told Reuters on Sunday. "This is a good move," the diplomat said. The announcement of the results followed sanctions imposed by the country's media watchdog on key members of both camps. Olivier Kamitatu, spokesman for Kabila's alliance, was barred on Saturday from speaking to the media for a week after he announced some election results at a news conference last week. Joseph Olenghankoy, Bemba's campaign manager, and three other spokesmen, were also gagged for a week after the former announced Bemba had won the election. Congo's vote cost more than $500 million and was being overseen by the U.N.'s largest peacekeeping mission, itself backed by a European Union force in the capital.
