The Republic of Congo’s President Denis Sassou N’Guesso has been re-elected with nearly 95 percent of the vote, according to provincial results, extending his nearly 42-year rule over the Central African oil-rich country.
Sassou Nguesso won 94.82 percent of the vote in Sunday's election, Interior Minister Raymond Zephirin Mboulou said on state television Tuesday.
The 82-year-old incumbent faced six little-known challengers in a race whose run-up was tightly managed by the ruling Congolese Labour Party.
Sassou's closest challenger, Mabio Mavoungou Zinga of the Alliance party came in second with 1.48 percent of votes, closely followed by independent candidate Uphrem Dave Mafoula who received 1.03 percent, according to the provisional results. The other four candidates got less than 1 percent of the vote.
Defeated candidates have five days to file a challenge, and the Constitutional Court has 15 days to examine them before publishing final results.
The main opposition parties opted not to field candidates, citing a lack of transparency, and two of the best-known opposition figures, General Jean-Marie Michel Mokoko and Andre Okombi Salissa, have been in jail for nearly a decade.
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'Nintendo' election
Sunday's voting was marred by late openings at some polling stations and a nationwide internet blackout.
State television on Tuesday reported turnout of 84.65 percent, though many polling stations in Brazzaville on election day had short or non-existent lines.
Bertrand Menier, spokesperson for the citizen observation mission of the civil society platform CAPGED, described the poll as “a Nintendo election”, insisting “the results do not reflect reality”.
The platform claimed there were numerous irregularities on Sunday, and the election was “neither fair, nor free, nor transparent”.
Academic Etanislas Ngodi told RFI Sassou-Nguesso had obtained “a Soviet-style result”, noting that the president “controls the institutions, security apparatus and administrative apparatus”.
Last term?
Sassou N'Guesso is a former paratrooper who took power in 1979. He lost Congo's first multi-party elections in 1992 but seized power again in 1997 after a civil war.
A constitutional change in 2015 scrapped term limits and the presidential age cap, enabling him to run for three additional five‑year terms.
This latest term is meant to be his last.
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Congo-Brazzaville boasts one of the largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa and its economy is heavily dependent on oil.
But over half the population lives in poverty, according to the World Bank, and many Congolese lack reliable access to electricity, running water and basic healthcare.
Congo has also faced persistent allegations of corruption, with French and US prosecutors investigating assets held abroad by members of Sassou's close family.
Ahead of Sunday's vote, human rights activists were arrested, several opposition parties were suspended and public gatherings were closely monitored, said Congolese human rights activist Joe Washington Ebina.
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The election is the latest in a trend of octogenarian African leaders clinging to power.
Sassou N’Guesso is the third-longest-serving African president, behind Cameroon’s Paul Biya and Equatorial Guinea ’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
(with newswires)
