One of the opposition candidates inthe recently held presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo has announced that he will file a complaint to cancel the results.
Former finance minister Mathias Dzon, who received 1.9 percent of the vote, announced Monday that he would file an election appeal with the country’s Constitutional Court.
He did not specify when this would occur.
“The candidates’ representatives did not participate in the compilation. What are these results that they are giving here? It surprises me. Is there a rush to hide something? ” It’s not in a day that we can compile all the results from the Congo. Look, there i s something that surprises me: In most of the results, we follow the order of presentation of candidates on the ballot. So this is something preconceived that they are doing and, even if we manage to get all the results, Congolese will not accept this”, Dzon said.
According to provisional results released Tuesday, President Denis Sassou Nguesso, 77, was re-elected with 88.57 percent of the vote.
The largest opposition boycotted the election on Sunday. It was overshadowed by the death on election day of key rival Guy-Brice Parfait Kolelas.
On election day, access to the internet and social media, as well as text messages, was disabled, while shops were closed and only security vehicles were visible in the capital, Brazzaville.
Voters in some areas complained that their names were missing from the electoral roll.
This is Sassou Nguesso’s fourth election victory since 2002, putting him on track for another five-year term.
Sassou Nguesso became president for the first time in 1979. He served three terms as president before being forced to implement multi-party elections in 1991, which he lost the following year.
After a long civil war, he was able to reclaim power in 1997.
In 2015, a constitutional amendment lifted the age restriction on presidential candidates and removed the two-term limit, allowing him to run again.
Sassou Nguesso was re-elected in the first round of the 2016 elections with 60% of the vote, against 15% for Kolelas, following a much more difficult campaign.
This time, Sassou Nguesso positioned himself as the defender of Congo’s youth, with the average age of the country’s five million inhabitants being 19. On the campaign trail, he detailed proposals to expand agriculture and reduce reliance on food imports.
The former French colony, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, is rich in oil deposits, and petroleum revenue accounts for the majority of its spending.
However, the Congolese economy is in free fall, hampered by a drop in global oil prices and a mountain of debt.
Educator, writer and legal researcher at Alafarika for Studies and Consultancy.