Congo: Low voter turnout for term limit referendum

BRAZZAVILLE, Monday
Low voter turnout at a weekend referendum to enable Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso to extend his 31-year stay in office was “a slap in the face” for the longtime leader, the opposition said on Monday.

“He’s just had a slap in the face, the Congolese refused to vote,” Pascal Tsaty Mabiala of the country’s biggest parliamentary opposition party, the UPADS, told AFP.

Mr Mabiala estimated turnout on Sunday at only around 10 per cent, saying this showed that voters had followed the opposition’s calls to boycott a referendum they described as “a constitutional coup d’etat”.

There was no official word on turnout, but initial observations suggested the numbers were low at some polling stations in the capital and other major cities in the small west African country.

“There were no crowds or enthusiasm,” said a source in City Hall at Ouesso in the north. “A good number of voters didn’t show up,” a military source told AFP in the city of Owando.

LOW VOTER TURNOUT

Polling stations visited by AFP correspondents in Brazzaville throughout the day showed no waiting line of voters, except near the presidential palace where Sassou Nguesso, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, cast his own ballot.

Congo was rocked by protests in the run-up to the referendum, including clashes Tuesday between opposition demonstrators and security forces in Brazzaville and the economic capital Pointe-Noire that authorities say left four people dead.

But opposition leader Paul-Marie Mpouele claimed on Friday that at least 20 people had died in the unrest.

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.

Sassou Nguesso is over the age limit and has already served two consecutive seven-year terms.

SOCIAL MEDIA

On Monday, the Internet, text messaging services and French radio RFI’s popular FM signal, were all cut for the sixth day running.

“After everything we’ve gone through, harassment, arrests, abuse, unbelievable violence... we will continue our civil disobedience,” Tsaty said.

The results of the referendum are expected some time this week.

Opposition demonstrators have rallied on the streets of the capital to protest the president’s plan to cling to power under the cry “Sassoufit”, a pun on the French expression “ca suffit”, or “that’s enough”.