Republic of Congo votes on leader’s bid to extend reign

BRAZZAVILLE

Congolese voted Sunday on whether to amend the constitution to enable one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, President Denis Sassou Nguesso, to seek a third term, extending his 31-year grip on power.

Opposition groups have called for a boycott of the referendum, which they describe as “a constitutional coup d’etat’ in the oil-producing Republic of Congo.

Voter turnout appeared low at around midday in the capital Brazzaville.

A polling station near the presidential palace where Sassou Nguesso cast his ballot was the only one of six visited by AFP where voters were waiting in line.

“We want change in order to have a constitution of the future, and not as others claim for superficial reasons because the president craves a new mandate,” Sassou Nguesso said, calling on his critics to come and express their discontent at the polls rather than abstaining.

The small central African country 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 Friday that at least 20 people had died in the unrest.

Only security forces vehicles and those with a special police permit were allowed in the streets of Brazzaville on Sunday.

Voter Brice Mbemba, without revealing whether he had voted “Yes” or “No”, said he had come to “vote for peace in my country”.

“We want peace, nothing but peace because we have suffered too much,” he said.

The referendum proposes 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.