Republic of the Congo parliamentary election, 2017

Parliamentary elections were held in the Republic of the Congo on 16 July 2017, with a second round of voting following on 30 July in constituencies where no candidate secured a majority.

Following a 2015 referendum on a new constitution, President Denis Sassou Nguesso was re-elected in the March 2016 presidential elections. The 2017 parliamentary elections were the first elections to the National Assembly held under the 2015 constitution. In the previous parliamentary election, held in 2012, Sassou Nguesso's party, the Congolese Party of Labour (PCT), won a majority of seats.

The PCT fielded candidates in 128 out of 151 constituencies in the 2017 election, far more than its rivals. Aside from the PCT, candidates from various smaller parties and independent candidates also supported Sassou Nguesso, and in many cases the competition for seats was mainly between supporters of the President.

Meanwhile, the opposition to Sassou Nguesso was divided on whether to participate. The Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS) opted to contest the elections, although it fielded candidates in only 43 constituencies, a fact that UPADS leader Pascal Tsaty Mabiala blamed on the increased cost of candidate deposits. Guy-Brice Parfait Kolélas, who placed a distant second behind Sassou Nguesso in the 2016 presidential elections, also chose to participate, leading a new party, the Union of Humanist Democrats (UDH-Yuki), into the elections; the UDH-Yuki fielded candidates in 31 constituencies. However, other elements of the opposition, grouped together in a coalition led by Claudine Munari, refused to participate, arguing that Sassou Nguesso's re-election was illegitimate and that it would be improper to hold an election while the Pool Department was suffering from renewed fighting involving "Ninja" rebels under Frédéric Bintsamou.

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