The field of 33 presidential and 9,000 legislative candidates, and ballot papers thicker than most Kinshasa newspapers, will give voters plenty to think about.

There is plenty to reflect on besides, after 10 years of restiveness, foreign aggression, civil war, partition and plunder. It is estimated that four million people died in Congo from the disease and malnutrition associated with the war that raged here between 1998 and 2003.

The month-long electoral campaign, which ended yesterday at sunset, had moments of public disorder, violence, looting and arson, but was remarkably peaceful for a country saturated with small arms, emerging from a situation of conflict and chaos.

The process received a huge boost, at the last moment, when the Catholic church here gave the polls their blessing, after a week in which they threatened to call for an electoral boycott.

The chief question here is: "Who is going to secure the country?", and it is expressed by all strata of Congolese society.

Congo is two-thirds the size of western Europe and is home to more than 200 tribes, separated by vast tracts of virgin forest and Savannah.

It is a continent-sized country whose transport, health, education and financial infrastructure is ridiculously denegraded.

The country's current crisis began with state collapse after years of misrule under the man Congolese call Marechal Mobutu.

Charismatic to the last, Mobutu emerged as the western-backed strongman leader after five years of post-independence chaos in Congo.

Seizing power for the second time in a 1965 coup, the army chief promised to return the country to civilian rule within five years, but remained in power for the next 32years.

By the end of his tenure, the country he renamed Zaire in a wave of nationalism and nationalisation, was a failed state, contributing greatly to regional instability.

Gross domestic product had fallen to $100 from $260 in the 1960s.

The Rwandan genocide resulted in more than a million Hutu refugees fleeing to Congo, with their leaders planning in Zaire for a return home to "finish the work" of genocide against the Tutsis.

Rwanda invaded Zaire in 1996, broke up those camps, and, with Ugandan support, installed a group of Zairean rebels as leaders.

The 'rebel' who emerged to become the country's new dictator, Joseph Kabila, soon fell out with his Rwandan patrons and the country, renamed Congo, was plunged into a so-called civil conflict that involved nine African nations.

Uganda and Rwanda were the principal aggressors in the war, sending in their own armies first, and then supporting local warlords against Kabila.

The country was split in half, and the plundering began, with billions of dollars worth of Congolese diamonds, gold, coltan (used in electronics), copper, cobalt and tin ore heading for the world market.

Kabila's son made peace with his enemies after his father was assassinated in 2001, in a two-year process that resulted in the formation of a transitional government in 2003, with the former belligerents holding the balance of power, sidelining the non-violent opposition.

As 17,000 UN soldiers aggressively helped Congo to secure its borders, the new leaders stuffed themselves at the trough of government.

According to the latest report of the International Crisis Group on promoting good government:

"Senior positions in the administration and state-run enterprises were shared between [the former belligerents], and state resources were siphoned off to fund election campaigns and private accounts.

"Between 60% and 80% of customs revenues are estimated to be embezzled, a quarter of the national budget is not properly accounted for, and millions of dollars are misappropriated in the army and staterun companies."

"The mining sector, " it notes, "is particularly prone to corruption, with valuable concessions granted with little legitimate benefit to the state."

Meanwhile, throughout Congo and especially in the east of the country, millions are subsisting in the shambolic remains of cities and towns, or in similarly impoverished villages, without any state support.

Aid organisations and local nongovernmental organisations have tried to fill the vacuum, but tens of thousands of people are still dying here every month from treatable diseases like malaria.

The presidential election may see a run-off between Kabila and former rebel leader Jean Pierre Bemba, who is popular with Congolese nationalists.

Congolese voters have time and again indicated that they want a leader who will secure the country.

"We will go for a strong leader now. After five years, we could vote for a civil leader, " said Francois, a tennis teacher and father-of-five.