{"id":28872,"date":"2026-03-16T12:55:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T10:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=28872"},"modified":"2026-03-16T13:00:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T11:00:45","slug":"congo-republics-sassou-seeks-new-term-amid-subdued-turnout-internet-outage","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/congo-republics-sassou-seeks-new-term-amid-subdued-turnout-internet-outage\/","title":{"rendered":"Congo Republic&#8217;s Sassou seeks new term amid subdued turnout, internet outage"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Congo Republic voted in a Presidential poll on Sunday which is expected to extend the rule of President Denis Sassou Nguesso, one of Africa&#8217;s \u200blongest-serving leaders, with a visibly thin turnout underscoring a lack of suspense over the outcome.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Sassou faces a weak field of challengers, \u200cwith two of the country&#8217;s best\u2011known opposition leaders in prison and others in exile. Several opposition parties boycotted the election, saying the process lacked credibility.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">More than 3.2 million Congolese were registered to vote, although analysts and civil society groups predicted turnout to fall below the nearly 68% recorded in 2021, when Sassou won his previous five-year mandate with \u200b88.4% of the vote.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Polling stations in the capital, Brazzaville, had short lines or no lines at all, a\u00a0<i>Reuters\u00a0<\/i>witness said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">After casting his \u200bballot in Brazzaville, Sassou told reporters he hoped the enthusiasm he said he had seen on the campaign trail \u2060would be evident in the final turnout figure.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8220;We remain hopeful that what I heard throughout the campaign will materialise today,&#8221; he said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Advertisement \u00b7 Scroll to continue<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Voting was due to \u200bend at 17:00 , with counting starting immediately after. Provisional electoral results are expected 48 to 72 hours after polls close.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Sassou \u200bseized power in the oil\u2011producing nation in 1979 and has governed almost continuously since, except for a five-year hiatus in the 1990s.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">He was running against six little-known candidates, none seen as serious contenders, with electoral bodies dominated by figures aligned with the ruling Congolese Labour Party.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8220;The opposition is fragmented and lacks a strong, emblematic figure,&#8221; said Remadji Hoinathy of \u200bthe Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies. &#8220;There may be fatigue among voters, but that will not affect Sassou&#8217;s chances.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The internet was down across the country on \u200bSunday, internet monitoring group NetBlocks said, making it difficult to get a full picture of how election day was unfolding.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23917,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-28872","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 elections ","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28872","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":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28874,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28872\/revisions\/28874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=28872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}