A widespread internet outage hit the Republic of Congo on Sunday, internet monitoring group \u200bNetBlocks said, as the Central African nation voted in a presidential election widely expected to \u200cextend 82-year-old Denis Sassou Nguesso’s decades-long rule by another five years.<\/p>\n
Sassou faces a weak field of challengers, with two of the country\u2019s best\u2011known opposition leaders in prison and others in exile. Several opposition parties boycotted the vote, saying the process lacked credibility.<\/p>\n
More than \u200b3.2 million Congolese are registered to vote, although analysts and civil society groups expect turnout to \u200bfall below the nearly 68% recorded in 2021, when Sassou won with 88.4% of the \u2060vote.<\/p>\n
Polls were expected to close at 6 p.m. local time (1700 GMT).<\/p>\n
“We confirm that a nation-scale internet blackout \u200bis now in effect in the Republic of Congo, a measure likely to limit transparency during today’s election,” Alp \u200bToker, director of NetBlocks, said in an email to Reuters, adding that connectivity was around 3% of ordinary levels.<\/p>\n
It was “technically consistent” with an internet outage imposed during the presidential election in 2021, Toker said.<\/p>\n
Congo’s Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso did not immediately respond \u200bon Sunday to a request for comment on the internet outage.<\/p>\n
VOTERS EXPRESS LITTLE HOPE FOR CHANGE<\/strong><\/p>\n Sassou seized power \u200bin the oil\u2011producing nation in 1979 and has governed almost continuously since, except for a five-year hiatus in the 1990s.<\/p>\n He is \u200crunning\u00a0against six \u2060little-known candidates, none seen as serious contenders, with electoral bodies dominated by figures aligned with the ruling Congolese Labour Party.<\/p>\n \u201cThe opposition is fragmented and lacks a strong, emblematic figure,\u201d said Remadji Hoinathy of the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies. \u201cThere may be fatigue among voters, but that will not affect Sassou\u2019s chances.\u201d<\/p>\n Rights groups say\u00a0the political space has \u200bnarrowed\u00a0in recent years, citing \u200barrests of activists and \u2060suspensions of parties.<\/p>\n Ahead of Sunday’s vote, Prime Minister Makosso dismissed accusations of pro-Sassou bias, arguing that Congo’s oversight bodies would ensure a transparent and fair election.<\/p>\n Some Congolese say \u200bthey see little chance for change.<\/p>\n “It’s an election whose outcome is known in \u200badvance,\u201d said Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric \u2060Nkou, an unemployed resident of Brazzaville. \u201cI don\u2019t expect things to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n Sassou has campaigned on continuity, pledging to accelerate development projects and expand access to education and professional training.<\/p>\n The economy, heavily dependent on oil, has stabilised in recent years after \u2060a long \u200bdownturn, but 52% of Congo’s 6.1 million people live in poverty, \u200baccording to the World Bank.<\/p>\n Provisional electoral results are expected 48 to 72 hours after polls close.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A widespread internet outage hit the Republic of Congo on Sunday, internet monitoring group \u200bNetBlocks said, as the Central African nation voted in a presidential election widely expected to \u200cextend 82-year-old Denis Sassou Nguesso’s decades-long rule by another five years. Sassou faces a weak field of challengers, with two of the country\u2019s best\u2011known opposition leaders […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":9,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,2362,33],"tags":[426,425],"class_list":["post-20173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-africa","category-featured","category-politics","tag-denis-sassou-nguesso","tag-republic-of-congo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20175,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20173\/revisions\/20175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}