|
Listen to article
|
Ballot counting began Sunday after polls closed in The Republic of Congo, where President Denis Sassou N’Guesso is seeking a fifth consecutive term. Results are expected within two weeks.
The elections were marked by a low turnout, as locals said they did not believe the election would result in a change in leadership from Sassou N’Guesso, who has ruled for 42 years. Opposition parties called for a boycott of the election.
Six other candidates challenged the 82-year-old for the top job in the Central African country that boasts one of the largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa. But analysts say none of them can mount a significant challenge against the incumbent.
The internet was shut down across the country as usual during the presidential election and traffic was restricted across the capital.
“Everyone knows that, faced with his six inexperienced opponents, President Denis Sassou-Nguesso will be reelected with a high score as usual. Since the election is not a big issue, we shouldn’t cut off communication,” Clarisse Massamba, a teacher who voted at the Lycée Javoueh in Brazzaville, told The Associated Press.
Read Also: Congo Votes Under Internet Blackout As Record Low Turnout Looms
The campaign period showed a vast mismatch between Sassou N’Guesso and his opponents, with the incumbent being the only candidate to travel around the country to canvass for votes. Roads in the capital city, Brazzaville, were paved with Sassou N’Guesso’s effigies.
Two other major parties boycotted the elections over allegations of unfair electoral practices.
Sassou N’Guesso, running for the Congolese Party of Labor, first came to power in 1979 and ruled until 1992 when he organized the country’s first multi-party elections. He returned to power as a militia leader following a four-month civil war in 1997.
A constitutional referendum in 2015 removed presidential age and term limits, allowing him to run again.
The country is struggling with high international debt, which stands at 94.5% of its gross domestic product, according to the World Bank, and skyrocketing unemployment rates for young people. More than half the country’s 5.7 million population lives in poverty and 47% of the country’s population is under 18.
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, only behind Cameroon ’s Paul Biya and Equatorial Guinea ’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
Internet monitoring group NetBlocks confirmed a nation-scale connectivity shutdown was in effect from early morning, with connectivity levels running at approximately three percent of normal levels.
“We confirm that a nation-scale internet blackout is now in effect in the Republic of Congo, a measure likely to limit transparency during today’s election,” said NetBlocks director Alp Toker, who noted the outage was technically consistent with an identical measure imposed during the 2021 vote. Congo’s Communications Minister Thierry Moungalla and Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso did not respond to media requests for comment on the shutdown.
On the ground in Brazzaville, Reuters correspondents reported short queues or empty polling stations across several districts of the capital. The physical scene matched the predictions analysts had made in the days before the vote: that public disengagement with a contest whose outcome is considered foregone would depress participation to levels that might constitute a political embarrassment for the government, even if the result itself was never in any realistic doubt.
“Honestly, I don’t see the point of voting on 15 March. Whether I vote or not, we’ll have the same winner,” Cyril Massamba, a Brazzaville resident, had told AFP days before the poll.
Sassou Nguesso, 82, ran against six candidates validated by the Constitutional Court on February 20, none assessed by any independent political analyst as a credible challenger.
The Congolese Labour Party and its allies exert extensive control over the state apparatus, the security forces, key institutions including the Constitutional Court, state media, and the electoral commission whose membership is drawn from the ruling parliamentary majority. The two opposition figures who had the institutional standing and popular recognition to mount a genuine challenge — former army chief of staff General Jean-Marie Michel Mokoko and former interior minister André Okombi Salissa — were convicted on state security charges after the 2016 election and remain imprisoned, serving 20-year sentences for endangering state security. Lassy Mbouity, who had declared a candidacy and led Les Socialistes Congolais, was kidnapped on May 11, 2025 and has not been publicly seen since.
Read Also: DR Congo Military Opens Multi-Front Offensive Against M23
At Sassou Nguesso’s final campaign rally in Brazzaville on March 13, foreign paramilitaries were spotted on rooftops, including at least one sniper. A ruling party official confirmed to AFP that the men were Russian personnel, without detailing their mission. The presence of Russian private security personnel at a Congolese presidential campaign event — mirroring reported Russian military contractor deployments in the Central African Republic — has not been formally explained by either government, and prompted concern among diplomatic observers in Brazzaville.
Congo — formally the Republic of Congo, distinct from the much larger Democratic Republic of Congo to its east — is the third-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa. It produces between 236,000 and 252,000 barrels of crude oil daily, alongside copper and diamonds, and contains vast areas of tropical rainforest forming part of the Congo Basin — the second-largest rainforest network on Earth after the Amazon. Despite these resources, 52 percent of the country’s six million people live below the poverty line, according to World Bank data. Youth unemployment stands at approximately 42 percent, and public services including healthcare and education remain severely underfunded across most of the country.
Sassou Nguesso has maintained his domestic political position through a combination of oil revenue-funded patronage networks, control of the security apparatus, and strategic elimination of institutional opposition. China has provided financing for major infrastructure projects in exchange for oil and timber concessions, producing approximately $3.2 billion in accumulated Chinese debt. Russia holds a 90 percent stake in the Pointe-Noire-Makoulou-Pichot oil pipeline, and President Vladimir Putin has described Congo as “a key priority of Russia’s foreign policy in Africa.” Western energy companies including TotalEnergies, Chevron, and Eni also maintain active operations in the country, creating a multilateral commercial interest in the continuation of stable governance regardless of its democratic quality.
