By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Polling stations in the Republic of Congo have closed following a presidential election Sunday in which the incumbent President Denis Sassou Nguesso is expected to extend his decades-long rule.
This comes as observers say voter turnout was low, largely reflecting lack of confidence among citizens in the electoral process.
Nguesso, 82, ran against barely known challengers, with two of the country’s prominent opposition leaders in prison and several parties boycotting the vote.
Six candidates stood against Nguesso but the main opposition is divided and largely absent, leaving him set to win another five-year term.
The President 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.
On Sunday, at one of the polling stations in the Ouenze district in the capital Brazzaville, only a handful of ballots lay in the box at 9:00 am local time.
Meanwhile, several other stations were yet to receive all their election materials by 7:00 am, when the polls were due to commence.
Multiple reports say few voters who arrived early refused to be filmed or provide their names. One elderly woman did speak out, saying “Denis Sassou will win”.
“It’s normal for a citizen to go vote who thinks, ‘I chose President Denis Sassou Nguesso, he’s the one who will bring peace’,” said Georgine, who admitted to working for the ruling party.
After voting on Sunday, Sassou Nguesso said he remained hopeful that the promise of victory heard during the campaign “will come to fruition today”.
“So I say to the people that if we are elected, the [development] project we presented will be implemented, and we hope that the people will rise up and stand with us,” he said.
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.
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.
