{"id":116490,"date":"2021-03-07T11:17:17","date_gmt":"2021-03-07T03:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=116490"},"modified":"2021-03-07T11:17:20","modified_gmt":"2021-03-07T03:17:20","slug":"elections-congo-brazzaville-readies-for-march-21-presidential-vote-amid-main-opposition-boycott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=116490","title":{"rendered":"Elections: Congo-Brazzaville readies for March 21 presidential vote amid main opposition boycott"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanaweb.com\/GhanaHomePage\/africa\/Congo-Brazzaville-readies-for-presidential-vote-amid-main-opposition-boycott-1197709?gallery=1\"><img src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanaweb.com\/imagelib\/pics\/161\/16176034.295.jpg\" alt=\"Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso wants more after 36 years in charge\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><strong><em>Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso wants more after 36 years in charge<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BRAZZAVILLE, March 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso will face seven challengers in a March 21 election, the interior ministry said, though the main opposition has said it plans to boycott the vote.<br><br>Sassou Nguesso, who has ruled for 36 years in total, will notably face Mathias Dzon, a 73-year-old former finance minister, and Guy-Brice Parfait Kolelas, 60.<br><br>Kolelas, whose father Bernard was briefly Congo&#8217;s prime minister in 1997 during the country&#8217;s civil war, was runner-up to Sassou Nguesso in 2016.<br><br>The candidates&#8217; names will now be sent to the constitutional court for validation, said Seraphin Ondele, interior ministry chief of staff.<br><br>While Kolelas is backed by his own political party, the Union of Humanist Democrats (UDH), the country&#8217;s largest opposition group, the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS), has already said it will boycott the polls.<br><br>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.<br><br>Sassou Nguesso&#8217;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.<br><br>They were arrested, put on trial and each handed 20 years in jail on charges of undermining state security.<br><br>Congo&#8217;s Catholic Church said last week it had &#8220;serious reservations&#8221; about the upcoming elections since coronavirus restrictions and a shaky electoral system could undermine confidence in the vote. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso wants more after 36 years in charge BRAZZAVILLE, March 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso will face seven challengers in a March 21 election, the interior ministry said, though the main opposition has said it plans to boycott the vote. Sassou Nguesso, who has ruled for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":116491,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116490"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/116491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}