{"id":28235,"date":"2026-03-10T11:56:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T09:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=28235"},"modified":"2026-03-10T11:57:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T09:57:28","slug":"congo-republics-sassou-set-to-extend-long-rule-focus-on-succession","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/congo-republics-sassou-set-to-extend-long-rule-focus-on-succession\/","title":{"rendered":"Congo Republic’s Sassou set to extend long rule, focus on succession"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Congo Republic President Denis Sassou Nguesso looks set to extend his decades-long rule in elections on Sunday, even as his advanced age and a term limit fuel speculation about who \u200bwill eventually succeed him.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The 82-year-old former paratrooper first took power in the oil-rich Central African nation in a coup in 1979.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He lost \u200cCongo Republic’s first multi-party elections in 1992 but seized power again in 1997 after a civil war.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He has now ruled for a combined total of almost 42 years, making him Africa’s third longest-serving leader, after Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang and Cameroon’s Paul Biya.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Sassou will face six candidates in an election with an organising commission dominated by figures appointed by the ruling Congolese Labour Party.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Two of \u200bthe main opposition parties are boycotting the vote, saying the process lacks transparency, and several potential challengers are in prison or in exile.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“This election is a \u200bmere formality. The real stakes lie in what comes next,” Remadji Hoinathy of the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies think tank \u2060said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A 2015 constitutional reform, adopted despite opposition protests, reset the presidential term limit and allowed Sassou to stay in power.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But it also capped presidents at three five-year \u200bmandates, meaning that, barring another reform, this is his last election.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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–Reuters–<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":28237,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-28235","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Congo Republic President looks set to extend his decades-long rule","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28238,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28235\/revisions\/28238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=28235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}