{"id":24132,"date":"2016-03-25T01:16:36","date_gmt":"2016-03-25T01:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/congo-leader-declared-winner-amid-protests\/"},"modified":"2016-03-25T01:16:28","modified_gmt":"2016-03-25T01:16:28","slug":"congo-leader-declared-winner-amid-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/congo-leader-declared-winner-amid-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"Congo leader declared winner amid protests"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Congo strongman Denis Sassou Nguesso was on Thursday declared the winner of presidential elections, extending his 32 years in power in a vote the opposition says was marked by \u201cmassive fraud\u201d.}<\/p>\n

Interior Minister Raymond Zephyrin Mboulou announced the results at 3:30am on national television, saying Sassou Nguesso had secured 60 per cent of the vote in the tense weekend poll held under an ongoing communications blackout.<\/p>\n

The official count gave runner-up Guy-Brice Parfait Kolelas 15 per cent of the vote, while General Jean-Marie Michel Mokoko came in third with 14 per cent.<\/p>\n

Sassou Nguesso hailed the victory at his campaign headquarters, saying the Congolese people had \u201ctaken their destiny into their own hands\u201d and adding that the campaign had produced a \u201cvery open\u201d democratic debate in the former French colony.<\/p>\n

Both of his main rivals had already rejected the partial results released on Wednesday, with Mr Kolelas\u2019 spokesman Vivien Manangou saying there had been \u201cmassive fraud\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Mokoko, who until February was Sassou Nguesso\u2019s security advisor, added: \u201cI knew beforehand that the dice were loaded, but we had agreed to play the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

He called for a recount, saying: \u201cHow do you want us to accept such a result?\u201d<\/p>\n

With telephones and the Internet cut off, neither candidate was immediately reachable after the official results were announced.<\/p>\n

CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM<\/p>\n

Oil and timber-rich Congo has been on edge since an October constitutional referendum that ended a two-term limit on presidential mandates, allowing Sassou Nguesso, a 72-year-old former paratrooper colonel, to run for office again.<\/p>\n

Critics accuse him of rampant corruption and nepotism, blasting the referendum result as a \u201cconstitutional coup\u201d.<\/p>\n

Authorities imposed a communications blackout during the election to prevent opposition candidates from publishing \u201cillegal results\u201d.<\/p>\n

A government source said they blackout would remain in place until after the official results.<\/p>\n

Sassou Nguesso has ruled Congo for all but five years since 1979, having lived in Paris in exile from 1992 to 1997.<\/p>\n

Most shops in the south of the capital Brazzaville, an opposition stronghold, had stayed shut on Wednesday amid fears of unrest.<\/p>\n

Kolelas\u2019 spokesman Manangou said security forces had stormed the candidate\u2019s campaign offices on Tuesday, hurling tear gas canisters and causing a stampede that left one person dead.<\/p>\n

A French journalist was present but was unable to confirm the death.<\/p>\n

Mokoko and Kolelas, along with the three other opposition candidates, have urged people to \u201cexercise their sovereignty\u201d in the event of a Sassou Nguesso victory.<\/p>\n

They created their own parallel \u201ctechnical commission\u201d to monitor the vote and compile information from polling stations to compare it to the official results.<\/p>\n

They said they could say \u201cwith certainty\u201d that the opposition had beat Sassou Nguesso in the first round and that a second-round election should be held.<\/p>\n

The European Union refused to send election observers to monitor the polls, saying conditions had not been met for a transparent and democratic vote<\/p>\n

The international community has since expressed concern over the fairness of the vote and called for the opposing sides to resolve their differences calmly.<\/p>\n

\"Newly<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Congo strongman Denis Sassou Nguesso was on Thursday declared the winner of presidential elections, extending his 32 years in power in a vote the opposition says was marked by \u201cmassive fraud\u201d.} Interior Minister Raymond Zephyrin Mboulou announced the results at 3:30am on national television, saying Sassou Nguesso had secured 60 per cent of the vote […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[99],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24132"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24132"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}