Congo Court Confirms Nguesso’s 94.9% Landslide Victory

Congo-Brazzaville’s Constitutional Court has confirmed President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s re-election with 94.9 per cent of the vote, extending the 82-year-old leader’s four-decade rule over the oil-rich central African nation.

The March 15 election gave Nguesso a new five-year term, court president Auguste Iloki announced at a public hearing at the weekend. “Nguesso won an absolute majority and is elected president with 94.9 per cent of votes on a turnout of 65.9 per cent,” Iloki said.

The opposition has challenged every election won by Sassou-Nguesso. Dave Mafoula, one of six candidates who stood against him, formally asked for the election to be declared null and void but the court rejected the demand.

Nguesso first led Congo-Brazzaville under a one-party system from 1979 to 1992 before losing the country’s first multi-party elections. He overthrew the winner in 1997 in a civil war. Since 2002, he has been re-elected five times in votes the opposition has said were neither transparent nor democratic.

The former paratrooper colonel is one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, along with Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and Cameroon’s President Paul Biya. While he can claim to have brought some stability to the country, rights groups regularly accuse him of persecuting opposition activists.

Two challengers from the 2016 election are serving 20-year jail terms for being a threat to internal security.

The constitution forbids Nguesso from standing again in 2031, once his fifth term ends.