Circulation in cars and motorcycles prohibited, Internet cut, SMS exchanges suspended, barrage of law enforcement, police officers and gendarmes almost more numerous than voters at the polling stations … the Congolese were called to the polls in a poor climate. reassuring about the transparency of the ballot. To this is added the concern about the state of health of the main opponent of Denis Sassou Nguesso, outgoing president and candidate for a fourth successive term. The head of the Union of Humanist Democrats (UDH-YUKI), Guy Brice Parfait Kolélas would have been evacuated by medical plane to Paris, this Sunday afternoon.
The Congolese generally shunned the ballot box
The day before, two hours before the general shutdown of the Internet, his camp posted a video showing him very weakened, breathless, and on respiratory assistance “My dear compatriots, I am in difficulty, I am fighting against death, but , I ask you to stand up. Go vote for change, ”he said. If rumors of poisoning are rife in Brazzaville, the man is rather showing symptoms of Covid-19.
The polling stations opened in principle at 7 am this morning, at the school of July 31, 1968 in the Mpila district of Brazzaville, it was not until 7:30 am to see a handful of voters pouring in. Bending down, kneeling, they look for their names on the lists arranged under the windows of the nine classrooms. And sometimes make white cabbage. “I cannot find my name, I was not at home when there was the census but I have my identity card” pleads an old man to a representative (of the ministry) in civilian clothes. Inside the first polling station, agents of the Independent Electoral Commission (CNEI) check the ballot box. “Look, it’s empty,” he says to the two delegates of the candidates present.
The first voter is an evangelical pastor in his sixties with a hesitant step, he presents his voter card, signs, goes behind the small voting booth draped in red to tick with a marker the box corresponding to one of the seven candidates represented on an A3 sheet. Then, slips his ballot into the ballot box and has his finger indelibly marked.
Divided voters
Mr. Kaba Tiné, 70-year-old economic operator comes out, sheepish from school. His name is not on the lists. He was counting on voting Denis Sassou-Nguesso “for continuity. Here, we have an opposition but it is not very strong, so he alone can move the Congo forward and he also has the possibility of paying the salaries and pensions of retirees. ”
This district is one of the strongholds of the outgoing president, he sometimes resides there not far from the white vats of the Autonomous Port which stores refined crude in Pointe-Noire, the economic capital. It is also the showcase of the transformation of Brazzaville promoted in recent months on the ruins of the terrible explosion of a military camp on March 4, 2012, which caused the death of more than 300 people, Chinese companies are rebuilding in step. charge, here a mall, there a real estate complex. Two glass towers rise behind the school. “This is our World Trade Center,” said a gendarme proudly.
In the Makélékélé district in the south of the capital, there is more influence. It is a stronghold of Kolélas. “I’m so worried about him,” says Léonce, 32, the father of 2 children. His wife stayed at home. “She says that it is useless to vote that everything is already played”.
Transparency reservations
At the Angola Free General Education College, Alfred, 56, bag in hand is annoyed: “The European Union said we will accompany you before during and after the elections but they are not there. We don’t understand. We need support for the transparency of results. France must help us too. »Azanga, a 27-year-old student, joins the debate, interested. “François Hollande said in 2015 at the time of the constitutional referendum (the new Constitution blew up the lock of two consecutive terms, Editor’s note) that a president had the right to consult his people. France is therefore responsible. She cannot stay silent. She needs to repair the damage caused by this daddy. »He slips, content. Two police officers approached to listen to his words: “look, look around you, we have no public health, we live in poverty while we pay bills,” he continues in another register. “We had too many deaths with the PCT, the Congolese labor party. And now it’s unemployment, the parents aren’t working, the kids are out. There are more and more kululas (criminals in Lingala). But it’s because of a lack of employment, ”continues Alfred.
In the sandy courtyard of the school, small lines of voters, ten people maximum, formed around 10 am. A representative of the CNEI is agitated: “we carried out the training of the agents, four days ago and only one day, it is insufficient. It would take three times as long, we have some fluidity problems at the entrance, but we will readjust ”.
In Poto-Poto, a shopping and cosmopolitan district, where West Africans hold the reins of part of the wholesale and retail businesses, one word returns: peace. “When you see what our parents went through, how much they suffered in the wars, you don’t want it to repeat itself,” says Goetzinger, 21, a law student. Many voters rather massed outside the Pierre Pzoko polling station, are young unemployed. Like Steve, 22, “you have to have the means to live in Poto-Poto because everything is expensive, water, electricity, even housing. But I’m voting for the president because he’s our daddy. He’s the one who leads us, we believe in him. ”
He is interrupted by two fellows who cross the alley, and tackle, acerbic: “they are bought, they have each taken 10,000 CFA francs to vote Denis, Sassou-Nguesso. ”
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