BRAZZAVILLE, Congo – The incumbent 82-year old President, Denis Sassou Nguesso won his fifth term in the Republic of the Congo’s presidential election held on March 15th, with provisional results released by the government showing him taking 94.82% of the vote, extending his presidency to nearly 42 years in power that is, from 1979-1992 and again from 1997-present.
These results were released by the Interior Minister Raymond Mboulou who also revealed that voter turnout was 84.65%, with over 2.6 million votes counted across the country.
Sassou Nguesso, 82, now stands to rule for more than four decades, as he first took power in 1979 before returning to power after a civil war in 1997. In 2015 he removed presidential term and age limits with a constitutional referendum so that he could be eligible to run again in 2026.
Supporters of the President celebrated in Brazzaville as the results were released by state media, and crowds gathered to support the long term leader.
Despite this, opposition and civil society groups had been vocal about their lack of belief in the integrity and legitimacy of the elections stating that they lacked transparency and actual competition as a result of opposition parties boycotting the vote due to perceived injustices in the electoral process and two key figures of the opposition were either in prison or overseas.
Observations on election day had shown very low turnout in some areas of Brazzaville, in spite of the officially published figures for overall turnout. Further to this, the government implemented a nation-wide internet blackout on election day which further fueled doubts about the integrity of the vote.
Sassou Nguesso was up against 6 relative unknowns in the race for presidency, and the nearest candidate to the current leader had only received just over 1% of the vote.
The provisional results are yet to be confirmed by the Constitutional Court but will allow questions about the countries future and succession to emerge as questions regarding how such a long reign will effect the country.
