{"id":20858,"date":"2015-10-27T09:16:05","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T09:16:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/over-90-vote-to-allow-congo-leader-s-bid-to\/"},"modified":"2015-10-27T09:14:09","modified_gmt":"2015-10-27T09:14:09","slug":"over-90-vote-to-allow-congo-leader-s-bid-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/over-90-vote-to-allow-congo-leader-s-bid-to\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 90% vote to allow Congo leader&#8217;s bid to extend rule"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-8768 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/denis_saungweso-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>{ {{<br \/>\nMore than 90 percent of people voting in a controversial referendum in the Republic of Congo approved a bid by President Denis Sassou Nguesso to extend his 31-year stay in office, according to official results announced on Tuesday.}} }<\/p>\n<p>A total of 92.96 percent of voters approved the constitutional change, which has now been adopted, Interior Minister Raymond Mboulou said.<\/p>\n<p>Official results showed turnout was high at 72.44 percent, though on Monday opposition leader Pascal Tsaty Mabiala had said only 10 percent of Congolese voted.<\/p>\n<p>According to reports by several AFP journalists in the capital Brazzaville, second city Pointe-Noire and several other areas of the central African country, people largely avoided voting offices.<\/p>\n<p>There were however long queues of voters near the presidential palace where Sassou Nguesso, one of Africa&#8217;s longest-serving leaders, cast his own ballot.<\/p>\n<p>The referendum proposed two changes to the constitution, which currently disqualifies Sassou Nguesso from running for re-election in 2016 because it stipulates a maximum age of 70 for presidential candidates and limits the number of mandates to two.<\/p>\n<p>Sassou Nguesso is over the age limit and has already served two consecutive seven-year terms.<\/p>\n<p>Daily Monitor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{ {{<br \/>\nMore than 90 percent of people voting in a controversial referendum in the Republic of Congo approved a bid by President Denis Sassou Nguesso to extend his 31-year stay in office, according to official results announced on Tuesday.}} }<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000069860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-20858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default 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