Congo-Brazzaville’s 82-year-old President Denis Sassou Nguesso was re-elected with nearly 95 percent of the vote, according to provisional results published Tuesday.
Sunday’s election in the oil-rich central African country will extend Sassou Nguesso’s total of 42 years in power by another five years.
He won a fifth term with “94.8 percent” of the vote, Interior Minister Raymond Zephyrin Mboulou said on national television.
He said the voter turnout was “84.65 percent”, which was expected to fall to a record low.
The provisional results have yet to be validated by the Constitutional Court.
Internet has been cut in Congo-Brazzaville since the morning of the election.
Vehicular traffic has been banned on Sunday and shop fronts have been ordered to remain closed.
Police and army vehicles patrolled the empty streets in the center of the capital, Brazzaville, throughout the day. Police were also present in large numbers at the polling stations.
On Monday, cars were back on the road but the internet was still down, leading some angry residents of Brazzaville to gather on the banks of the Congo River and try to pick up a signal by water from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Six candidates stood against Sassou Nguesso but the main opposition was divided and largely absent, dismissing it as a farce.
Read moreCongolese President Sassou Nguesso is seeking re-election in March 2026
Oil and gas
The former paratrooper colonel is already one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, along with Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguma Mbasogo and Cameroonian President Paul Biya.
While he can claim to have brought some stability to the country, rights groups regularly accuse him of harassing opposition activists.
During his election campaign, the president emphasized his economic record, pushing to modernize the country’s infrastructure and develop the gas and agricultural sectors in an effort to make the country self-sufficient.
Oil and gas provides most of the state’s revenue, which is estimated at 2.9 percent by 2025.
Nevertheless, more than half of the country’s population lives below the poverty line.
Government critics say the country’s growth has been stunted by funneling huge amounts of state oil revenue into the bank accounts of senior officials.
Sassou Nguesso’s administration has already been the target of numerous criminal complaints and investigations, particularly in France.
If provisional results are confirmed and Sassou Nguesso’s re-election is certain, the constitution prohibits him from running again in 2031, raising the question of a possible extradition.
He told AFP that he would not stay “in power forever” and the younger generation would get its turn. But he does not name anyone in particular as a possible successor.
Sassou Nguesso led Congo-Brazzaville under a one-party system from 1979 to 1992 before losing the first multi-party elections, the winner of which he overthrew in civil war in 1997.
He was re-elected in 2002, 2009, 2016 and 2021 in opposition votes that were not transparent or democratic.
(With FRANCE 24 AFP)
(Tags to translate)Africa(T)Congo Brazzaville(T)Denis Sassou Nguesso(T)Presidential Elections
