Congo-Brazzaville holds elections Sunday in a vote expected to extend 82-year-old President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s more than four decades in power in the oil-rich central African country. Observers say voter turnout could reach a record low.
Six candidates are standing against Sassou Nguesso but the main opposition is divided and largely absent, leaving him set to win another five-year term.
The former paratrooper colonel is already one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, along with Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and Cameroonian President Paul Biya.
The president has toured the country during the election campaign, which ended Friday, backed by the ruling Congolese Workers’ Party (PCT), urging voters to come to the ballot box.
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The second round of voting, if there needs to be one, is in theory three weeks later. The date the results of the first round will be announced has not yet been announced.
Economy, infrastructure
Sassou Nguesso stressed the issue of security during his final election meeting in Brazzaville Friday, attended by thousands of enthusiastic supporters.
While he can claim to have brought some stability to the country, rights groups regularly denounce what they say is the persecution of opposition activists.
Two opposition figures who featured in the 2016 election campaign, General Jean-Marie Michel Mokoko and Andre Okombi Salissa, are both behind bars, jailed for 20 years for supposedly being a “threat to internal security”.
During his election campaign, the president underlined his economic record, having pushed to modernise the country’s infrastructure and develop the gas and agriculture sectors in a bid to make the Republic of Congo self-sufficient.
Oil and gas provide most of the state revenue, driving growth that is estimated to be 2.9 percent for 2025.
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Nevertheless, more than half of the country lives below the poverty line.
The government’s critics say the country’s growth has been sapped by massive amounts of state oil revenue syphoned into the bank accounts of senior officials.
The government has already been the target of several criminal complaints and investigations, notably in France.
Firm grip on power
While Sassou Nguesso’s re-election seems assured, the constitution forbids him from running again in 2031, raising the question of a possible handover.
He told French news agency AFP that he would not remain “in power for ever” and that the young generation would get their turn. But he would not name anyone in particular as a possible successor.
Sassou Nguesso first led Congo-Brazzaville under a one-party system from 1979 to 1992 before losing the first multi-party elections, whose winner he then overthrew in a civil war in 1997.
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He was re-elected in 2002, 2009, 2016 and 2021 in votes the opposition said were neither transparent nor democratic.
He has maintained a firm grip over the former French colony, which gained independence in 1960 and has traditionally maintained close ties with both France and Russia.
The third-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, Congo-Brazzaville depends heavily on hydrocarbons, which account for more than three-quarters of export earnings.
Voting stations will open at 7:00 am local time, closing at 6:00 pm (1700 GMT).
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