The Congo Republic pressed ahead with a presidential election on Sunday with the Internet and social media sites down since midnight, the main opposition candidate gravely ill and all signs showing the incumbent, Denis Sassou Nguesso, likely to win yet another poll following a boycott by the main opposition.
The 77-year-old incumbent is widely expected to win against six contenders, led by economist and 2016 presidential runner-up Guy-Brice Parfait Kolelas, who revealed Saturday that he is gravely ill.
Voting began at a polling station in the capital Brazzaville shortly after 7am local time, according to witnesses.
Access to the Internet and social media was cut hours before polls opened, with the watchdog group NetBlocks reporting an Internet blackout that began in the Central African country around midnight on election day
Sassou Nguesso, a former paratrooper, first rose to power in the Congo Republic in 1979 and has since accumulated 36 years in office, making him one of the world’s longest-serving leaders.
He is widely expected to win a fourth term in office despite an ongoing economic crisis and accusations of having mismanaged the country’s oil revenues.
UN and EU observers were not invited to monitor Sunday’s election, and the interior ministry refused to allow the Catholic Church’s 1,100 observers to take part.
Main challenger ‘battling against death’
A day before polls opened, Kolelas, 66, the main opposition challenger, posted a video message online showing himself in a sickbed, declaring he was “battling against death” after taking off a respiratory mask.
“Rise up as one person… I’m fighting on my deathbed, you too fight for your change,” he urged supporters, saying the election was “about the future of your children” before replacing his mask.
Campaign spokesman Cyr Mayanda told the Associated Press on Sunday that Kolelas’s condition was stable, but that plans were underway for a medical evacuation to France for further treatment.