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Congo-Brazaville‘s 82-year-old President Denis Sassou Nguesso has been re-elected for a fifth term. Sassou Nguesso coasted to victory with 94.8% of the vote in an election in which two oppositions were jailed.
Observers noted that the election, held on Sunday, was marred by low voter turnout, but the country’s Interior Minister Raymond Zephyrin Mboulou said the country recorded 84.65% voter turnout.
Thousands of his supporters rallied for him on Friday, the last day of the campaign. The 82-year-old, who had first ruled under a one-party system from 1979 to 1992 before losing the first multi-party elections, promised the country’s citizens that he would develop the gas and agriculture sectors in a bid to make the country self-sufficient.
The Congolese President was re-elected in 2002, 2009, 2016 and 2021 in votes the opposition said were neither transparent nor democratic.
He has consistently praised his administration for bringing stability to the oil-rich country, but rights groups regularly accuse him of persecuting opposition activists. According to AFP, over half of the country’s population lives below the poverty line.
Credit:Roch Bouka/Reuters
Critics of his administration say the country’s growth has been sapped by massive amounts of state oil revenue syphoned into the bank accounts of senior officials.
Sassou Nguesso’s administration has already been the target of several criminal complaints and investigations, notably in France.
The provisional results still have to be validated by the constitutional court. If he is declared the winner, the constitution forbids him from running again in 2031.
The 82-year-old President is already one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, along with Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and Cameroonian President Paul Biya.
He told AFP he would not remain “in power forever” and that the young generation would get its turn. But he would not name anyone in particular as a possible successor.
