By Samueli Munai.
Ambassador of Kenya to DRC Dr.George Sirengo Masafu, who is also accredited for Congo Brazzaville is leading a team of officers as presidential election observers in Brazzaville.
Presidential elections in Brazzaville will be held on Sunday 21st March 2021. Unlike in Kenya where presidential and parliamentary elections are held together, in Brazzaville Parliamentary elections will be held next year.
President Denis Sassou Nguesso is defending his seat and is expected to win by a landslide after the main opposition leaders opted out of the elections citing irregularities
Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso will face seven challengers in a March 21 election, the interior ministry said Tuesday, though the main opposition has said it plans to boycott the vote.
Sassou Nguesso, who has ruled for 36 years in total, will however face Mathias Dzon, a 73-year-old former finance minister, and Guy-Brice Parfait Kolelas, 60.
While Kolelas is backed by his own political party, the Union of Humanist Democrats (UDH), the country’s largest opposition group, the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS), has already said it will boycott the polls.
The 77-year-old Sassou Nguesso, who will be bidding for a fourth term, is a retired general who first ruled from 1979 to 1992 before returning at the end of the civil war in 1997.
Sassou Nguesso’s 2016 victory was marred by bloodshed and claims of fraud, with two of his opponents, Jean-Marie Michel Mokoko and Andre Okombi Salissa, disputing the results.
They were arrested, put on trial, and each handed 20 years in jail on charges of undermining state security.
