Congo-Brazzaville's Sassou Nguesso re-elected: provisional results
Africa
By
AFP
| Mar 17, 2026
Supporters of the Parti Congolais du Travail (PCT) of Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso celebrate his reelection in Brazzaville on March 17, 2026. [AFP]
Congo-Brazzaville's 82-year-old President Denis Sassou Nguesso has been re-elected with nearly 95 percent of the vote, according to provisional results announced on Tuesday.
Sunday's election in the oil-rich central African country extends Sassou Nguesso's cumulative 42 years in power for another five years.
He won a fifth term with "94.8 percent" of the vote, Interior Minister Raymond Zephyrin Mboulou said on national television.
Turnout, which was predicted to drop to a record low, was "84.65 percent", he said.
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The provisional results still have to be validated by the constitutional court.
Internet has been cut in Congo-Brazzaville since the morning of the election.
Traffic was banned on Sunday and shops ordered to close.
Police and army vehicles patrolled the empty streets in the centre of the capital, Brazzaville, all day. Police were also out in numbers at polling stations.
On Monday, cars were back on the roads but the internet was still down, leading some annoyed residents of Brazzaville to congregate on the banks of the river Congo to try and pick up a signal from the Democratic Republic of Congo, just across the water.
Six candidates stood against Sassou Nguesso but the main opposition was divided and largely absent, boycotting what it said would be a farce.
Oil and gas
The former paratrooper colonel is already one of Africa's longest-serving leaders, along with Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and Cameroonian President Paul Biya.
While he can claim to have brought some stability to the country, rights groups regularly accuse him of persecuting opposition activists.
During his election campaign, the president underlined his economic record, having pushed to modernise the country's infrastructure and develop the gas and agriculture sectors in a bid to make the country self-sufficient.
Oil and gas provide most of the state revenue, driving growth that is estimated to be 2.9 percent for 2025.
Nevertheless, more than half of the country's population lives below the poverty line.
The government's critics say the country's growth has been sapped by massive amounts of state oil revenue syphoned into the bank accounts of senior officials.
Sassou Nguesso's administration has already been the target of several criminal complaints and investigations, notably in France.
While Sassou Nguesso's re-election is assured if the provisional results are confirmed, the constitution forbids him from running again in 2031, raising the question of a possible handover.
He told AFP he would not remain "in power forever" and that the young generation would get its turn. But he would not name anyone in particular as a possible successor.
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.