Former Congo Dictator Loses Bid for New Term as President
President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, a former dictator stripped of all but ceremonial powers, has lost his bid for a new term, an official said Saturday.
Six African presidents, including Sassou-Nguesso, have been unable to win reelection against newly legalized opposition parties in the past two years.
Two other candidates, Pascal Lissouba and Bernard Kolelas, both got more votes than Sassou-Nguesso’s 17% showing in the first round of presidential voting Aug. 2, Interior Minister Alphonse Nzoungo said. He said nearly 59% of registered voters turned out.
Lissouba, whose Pan-African Union for Social Democracy won the biggest bloc of votes in last month’s parliamentary elections, led with 36%.
Kolelas, leader of the Congo Movement for Democracy and Complete Development, received 20%. The two will face eahc other in a runoff, scheduled for Aug. 16.
The voting Aug. 2 was the first contested presidential balloting since 1963 in the former French colony of 2.3 million people.
Sassou-Nguesso was elected in 1979 under a single-party socialist system. He was forced to hold a national conference last year after strikes and unrest. Similar pressure has forced more than 20 African nations to permit opposition parties in the past three years.
The Congo conference stripped Sassou-Nguesso of most of his powers and set up a transition government headed by Prime Minister Andre Milongo.
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