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A presidential election was held in the Republic of the Congo in August 1992, marking the end of the transitional period that began with the February–June 1991 National Conference. In the first round, held on August 8, Pascal Lissouba of the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS), who had served as Prime Minister in the 1960s, placed first with 36% of the vote, outperforming another opposition leader, Bernard Kolélas of the Congolese Movement for Democracy and Integral Development (MCDDI), who won 20%, and Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the former ruling party, the Congolese Labor Party (PCT), who won 17%; Sassou-Nguesso had been President since 1979 but only in a ceremonial capacity since the National Conference. Prime Minister André Milongo, who led the country during the transition but whose government had lost its responsibility for organizing the election after the local election of May 1992 proved controversial, placed fourth with 10%, while two former leading figures of the PCT, Jean-Pierre Thystère Tchicaya and Joachim Yhombi-Opango, placed fifth and sixth with 6% and 3% respectively.
Lissouba, who prevailed in the second round against Kolélas with 61% of the vote, owed his victory mainly to overwhelming support in the three regions collectively known as Nibolek—Niari, Bouenza, and Lékoumou—where his support in the first round ranged from 80% to 91%, as well as to the backing of the PCT in the second round. Kolélas won a first round majority only in the Pool Region, although he also won a plurality in Brazzaville. Sassou-Nguesso dominated the north, winning first round majorities in Plateaux and Likouala and pluralities in Cuvette and Sangha. With Sassou-Nguesso's support, Lissouba was able to win all regions in the second round except Brazzaville, Pool, and Kouilou.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ John F. Clark, "Congo: Transition and the Struggle to Consolidate", in Political Reform in Francophone Africa (1997), ed. John F. Clark and David E. Gardinier, pages 70–71.
