Driving past the offices of the Union pour la Democratie et le Progrès Sociale (UDPS - Union for Democracy and Social Progress), people were outside celebrating.

A blackboard outside the provincial party headquarters proclaimed victory for the presidential candidate, Etienne Tshesekedi, based on partial results.

Except that no partial results had been released, and indeed publication of such results was illegal under Congolese law.

Tshesekedi had already declared himself president before the elections began, but did offer the strongest challenge to incumbent president, Joseph Kabila.

His supporters outside the headquarters were clutching print-outs downloaded from the internet, which appeared to be tallies of voting centre results compiled by observer groups. None could prove the veracity of these results, but everyone I spoke to agreed that they were sure that these indicated that he would win the elections.