Republic of Congo Votes for President, Amid Calls for Boycott

Associated Press

BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo – Voters cast their ballots Sunday in a presidential poll in the Republic of Congo, amid opposition calls for a boycott and accusations of fictitious voting lists.

Longtime President Denis Sassou-Nguesso faces 12 opponents but six of them -- including main challenger Mathias Dzon -- have called for voters in the tiny, oil-rich nation to stay home.

Polls in the capital opened at 7 a.m. Voter turnout appeared thin early Sunday morning in the capital, but election officials said they hoped activity would increase before polls closed at 6 p.m. local time.

"It is still too early to hope for a great multitude of voters," said Antoine Ngatse, chief of a polling station in a northern district of Brazzaville.

Mr. Sassou-Nguesso claimed power in 1979 after a coup and ruled until a 1992 election defeat. He seized power again in 1997 with help from Angolan troops. In 2002, he rewrote the constitution to give more power to the presidency and was re-elected.

Opposition members held a rally in the capital Friday with an estimated 4,000 attendees, where voters were told:

"Don't vote, stay at home." Opposition leaders said the country's voting lists were full of errors, the same accusation they made in 2007 during parliamentary elections.

But the Catholic church, the country's leading Christian denomination, has urged Republic of Congo's 4 million citizens to vote. Archbishop of Brazzaville Monseigneur Anatole Milandou encouraged voters last week to head to the polls Sunday instead of going to church, adding that the faithful could instead attend Mass on Saturday.

Maurice Gangoue, a worker for a human rights group named after the assassinated president of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara, said rifts and infighting among the opposition didn't allow the opposition to present a single front to challenge the president.

Despite opposition scrutiny, some residents said the president remains popular. Marie Alphonse, who teaches at the university Marien Ngouabi de Brazzaville, acknowledged the existence of "small errors" in the voting lists but said that former opposition leaders' support for the president made his case stronger.

Another victory would vault Mr. Sassou-Nguesso into an elite group of three-decade rulers in Africa. Other long-standing rulers include Angola's Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang, who both took power in 1979, and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, who has ruled since 1980.

In May, a French judge called for an investigation into Mr. Sassou-Nguesso and two other African leaders on charges of money laundering and other alleged crimes linked to their wealth in France. The probe follows a complaint by Transparency International France, an association that tracks corruption, against Messrs. Sassou-Nguesso and Obiang of Equatorial Guinea. Gabon's Omar Bongo was also named in the probe but he has since died