The election of the Republic of Congo has resulted in Congolese opposition presidential candidate Guy-Brice Parfait Kolelas winning – who died of COVID-19 on election day last month – according to results declared by his party, the Union of Democratic Humanists (UDH-) Yuki).
The President of the Republic of the Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso, who has held power for a cumulative 36 years, won re-election on March 21 with as much as 88.57% of the vote, according to the Interior Minister, quoting figures from the Electoral Commission.
The vote was boycotted by the main opposition and election day was overshadowed by the shock death of Kolelas – Sassou Nguesso’s only major rival.
The preliminary results announced by the Interior Minister gave Kolelas only 7.84% of the vote.
But his party, UDH-Yuki, said on Saturday that its own partial results compiled from polling stations showed that Kolelas won 64% of the vote to Sassou Nguesso’s 31%.
UDH-Yuki and the party of another opposition candidate, Mathias Dzon, have appealed to the country’s constitutional court, which is expected to rule on a decision within a week.
“The UDH – Yuki Political Bureau calls on the Constitutional Court to interpret the law and therefore declares a complete annulment of the preliminary results of the vote,” said party spokesman Lucrece Nguedi.
He added that the recent elections “were once again just an election stop in the face of a major masquerade.”
The 61-year-old Kolelas was evacuated to France on polling day for treatment, but he died on the plane just five minutes after it hit Paris.
A court in Paris said a criminal investigation was launched into the cause of death, but after an autopsy it confirmed that it was compatible with coronavirus contamination.
Last month’s vote marks the fourth election victory since 2002 for Sassou Nguesso, a former paratrooper who first rose to power in 1979.
He served for three presidential terms until he was forced to introduce multi-party elections in 1991 and was defeated in the ballot box the following year.
But he returned to power in 1997 after a long civil war.
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