Congo Republic President Denis Sassou Nguesso has won a new five-year term with over 60 percent of the vote, the interior minister said on Thursday, but the opposition rejected the outcome, alleging fraud and calling for civil disobedience. Residents said Brazzaville, capital of the oil-producing Central African nation where Sassou Nguesso has ruled for all but five of the past 37 years, was quiet but tense as police and soldiers patrolled the streets.
In the economic hub of Pointe Noire, an opposition stronghold, police fired in the air near the Tchi Tchi market to disperse a crowd that had gathered, a witness said. It was not immediately clear who was in the crowd. The government lifted a blackout of telephone and Internet communications imposed for Sunday's vote, a measure it said aimed to prevent unofficial election results circulating and causing unrest.