AA / Pascal Mulegwa
Congolese defense and security forces voted early on Monday for legislative and local elections to be held on July 10 in Congo-Brazzaville, a small oil-rich country in central Africa.
At 5 p.m. local time, the polling stations were closed, particularly in the capital Brazzaville where tens of thousands of men in uniforms and wearing their berets, flocked to the polling centers.
This is the second time that the Congo has experimented with advance voting by the defense and security forces.
The first test took place in 2021 during the last presidential election under the fire of criticism from the opposition and civil society.
The National Independent Electoral Commission (CNEI) has provided that police officers and soldiers who are on mission, far from their usual place of work, will be able to vote by proxy,
The electorate of the security forces is not specified, but the Electoral Commission indicated that nearly 3 million voters were expected for the polls.
In Congo, the Congolese Labor Party (PCT) of President Denis Sassou-Nguesso has controlled the National Assembly since 2002. This political formation has 92 deputies out of 151 in the outgoing Assembly.
Some opposition political groups have announced that they are boycotting the elections to protest against the conditions of their organisation. They believe that the election is a foregone conclusion.
A week before the polls, a candidate for the ruling party was withdrawn from the race for having made remarks during a meeting deemed “tribalist and retrograde” by his own political party.
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