The Republican opposition candidate Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas died of COVID-19 when he was transferred to France for treatment, his campaign manager said on Monday, the day after the presidential election in which he was the main challenger.
Kolelas was considered the main rival against veteran leader Denis Sassou Nguesso, who was expected to win Sunday’s vote.
The election was boycotted by the main opposition and during an internet shutdown, with critics expressing concern over the openness of the vote, seen as leaning towards Sassou Nguesso.
Kolelas “died in the medical plane that came to get him from Brazzaville on Sunday afternoon,” his campaign director Christian Cyr Rodrigue Mayanda told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The 60-year-old tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday afternoon and could not host his last campaign meeting in Brazzaville.
On Saturday, he posted a video from his hospital bed declaring that he was “fighting to the death.”
“Stand up as a person … I’m fighting on my deathbed, you too are fighting for your change,” he urged his supporters, saying the election was about “your children’s future.”
Mayanda urged supporters of Kolelas to gather at 11 a.m. local time (10:00 GMT).
“We continue to count the ballots. He was ahead in a number of areas,” he said.
Kolelas came in second in the 2016 presidential election and took 15% of the vote according to official results. He had promised to release the two candidates from the vote that was sentenced in 2018 to 20 years in prison for “undermining state security”, former army general Jean-Marie Michel Mokoko and former minister Andre Okombi Salissa.
He was the only serious challenger for the president on Sunday after a series of boycotts, withdrawn candidacies and exceptions. Provisional election results are not expected in days.
There were no reports of major incidents before the polls closed, but AFP correspondents said access to the internet and social media, as well as text messages, were reduced. In some areas, voters complained that their names were not on the electoral roll.
“The only uncertainty is what point Sassou will tell the election commission to give him,” said Congolese novelist Emmanuel Dongala, contacted by AFP in his American home.
Sassou Nguesso, 77, a former paratrooper, first came to power in 1979 and has since accumulated 36 years of service, making him one of the world’s longest serving leaders.
Speaking after the vote, Sassou Nguesso said the “atmosphere of peace” during the election campaign – marked by the police crackdown on the opposition – was “a good sign of our democracy.”
But when asked about security when the election results are announced, a moment that sparked a wave of violence in the most recent poll in 2016, he replied: “I am not God.”
Shops were closed and only security vehicles were seen in the center of Brazzaville during the vote.
The largest opposition group, the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS), is boycotting the vote, in which about 2.5 million people have the right to vote.
UPADS – the group of former President Pascal Lissouba, who died in France in August last year – is the only opposition party to have a parliamentary group in the current National Assembly.
“Overall, the Congolese are avoiding the ballot box,” said rights activist Brice Makosso. “Polling stations were empty.”
Flanked by its gigantic neighbor Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon, the former French colony has abundant oil reserves and most of its budget comes from oil revenues.
But its economy is in a downturn, damaged by a collapse in world commodity prices, long-term debt and pandemics, as well as a reputation for corruption.
Sassou Nguesso fought for agricultural development and portrayed himself as a defender of Congolese youth – the average age of the population of 5 million is only 19, according to UN figures.
After coming to power in 1979, Sassou Nguesso was forced to introduce multi-party elections in 1991 and was defeated at the ballot box a year later. But he returned to power in 1997 after a long civil war. He has won every election since, which the opposition has mostly become deceptive.
A constitutional amendment in 2015, which ended a ban on presidential candidates over the age of 70 and abolished a two-term term, allowed him to run again in 2016.
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