Voting centers in the Republic of Congo have closed following a day of voting in elections that are widely expected to ‌extend incumbent President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s decades-long rule.

President Denis faced off against a weak field of challengers with two of the country’s best‑known opposition leaders in prison and several parties boycotting the vote.

Six candidates are standing against Sassou Nguesso but the main opposition is divided and largely absent, leaving him set to win another five-year term.

Meanwhile, observers said voter turnout could reach a record low, largely reflecting the lack of suspense over the poll’s outcome.

The president toured the country during the election campaign, which ended Friday, backed by the ruling Congolese Workers’ Party (PCT), urging voters to come to the ballot box.

Yet at one polling station in the Ouenze district of the capital Brazzaville, only a handful of ballots lay in the box at 9:00 am local time.

Several other stations, meanwhile, had not received all their election materials by 7:00 am, when the polls were due to open.

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The few voters who did arrive mostly refused to be filmed or provide their names. One elderly woman did speak out, saying “Denis Sassou will win”.

“It’s normal for a citizen to go vote who thinks, ‘I chose President Denis Sassou Nguesso, he’s the one who will bring peace’,” said Georgine, who admitted to working for the ruling party.

After voting on Sunday, Sassou Nguesso said he remained hopeful that the promise of victory heard during the campaign “will come to fruition today”.

“So I say to the people that if we are elected, the [development] project we presented will be implemented, and we hope that the people will rise up and stand with us,” he said.

While he can claim to have brought some stability to the country, rights groups regularly denounce what they say is the persecution of opposition activists.

Two opposition figures who featured in the 2016 election campaign, General Jean-Marie Michel Mokoko and Andre Okombi Salissa, are both behind bars, jailed for 20 years for supposedly being a “threat to internal security”.