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Congo-Brazzaville - Politics

By 2016 the political scene was a caricature of democracy, which propped up an authoritarian and largely personalized regime that relied on clientelistic networks, corruption and the threat of repression. The opposition remained weak and unable to challenge the government effectively.

The years after independence were characterised by the fight for power between elite leaders who wanted to maintain or retake power within a one-party state. Contrary to a widespread perception, the conflict was not a tribal one; ethnic groups were and are manipulated into fighting for one or the other of the elite leaders. There was a succession of coups in the sixties; the first president Fulbert Youlou, leader of the Union démocratique pour la Défense des Intérêts africains (UDDIA), was ousted in 1963. His successor was Alphonse Massamba-Débat, the founder of the Mouvement national de la révolution, a Marxist Party which was to be replaced as the state party by the Parti congolais du travail (PCT) of Major Marien Ngouabi in 1969.

This change concurred with a shift in control of politics from the Southern region to the North of the country, where Ngouabi was from, creating opposition movements in and around the capital Brazzaville. Ngouabi was assassinated in March 1977. The following month Colonel Jacques-Joachim Yhombi-Opango was appointed head of state. Massamba-Débat, together with several other political and army leaders, was sentenced to death.

The era of the early 1990s was the symbolic dawn of the democratic process in the Congo and heralded a shift in the political process. The first (and arguably only) democratic elections in Congo came in 1992, when the first multi-party elections were held. Pascal Lissouba was elected President; his party, the Union panafricaine pour la démocratie sociale (UPADS), won the legislative elections with only a relative majority. The UPADS formed an alliance with the PCT which broke up when the PCT did not get all the key positions in the government it had asked for.

The democratic honeymoon was short-lived as Lissouba turned his back on whatever purported agreement was made with Sassou (who came in third in the election), with a public renunciation of the alleged agreement as notes on a "sheet of paper." Another alliance ensued, this time between the PCT and Bernard Kolélas MCDDI (Mouvement congolais pour la démocratie et le développement intégral). After this coalition received a vote of no confidence in parliament in October 1992, Pascal Lissouba dissolved the National Assembly and new elections were scheduled for 1993.

That episode created a political divide that would soon thrust the country into civil war in 1993. At this point the problems with the army still were not solved. When the coalition between the MCDDI and the PCT started a campaign of civil disobedience protesting against Lissouba and demanding to form a new government, the armed forces set up a transitional government.

Because of irregularities the 1993 elections had to be repeated three times. An administration run by a coalition of the PCT, the MCDDI and various other groups ruled the country until 1997.

The Congolese Government denied 17 September 2023 reports about a coup attempt against President Denis Nguesso, who had been in power for 38 years. It was reported that the military has seized administrative buildings in the capital Brazzaville. According to preliminary information, the coup is led by the commander of the presidential guard, General Serge Oboa.

Congo’s Minister of Information Thierry Moungalla tweeted on X " Fanciful information suggests serious events are underway in #Brazzaville . The Government denies this fake news. We reassure public opinion about the calm that reigns and invite people to calmly go about their activities." Some social media accounts and news reports claimed a coup attempt was underway in the country as the president was away attending the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, United States. While the reports said the identities of the coup plotters were unknown, they suggested that the commander of the presidential guard had a role to play in the attempted takeover.

Nguesso is a former military officer who has been president since 1997. He had been part of a military coup that ousted former President Alphonse Massemaba-Debat in 1968. The development came amid growing concerns about a regressing democracy in Africa, where the military has been staging coups in recent times.