President Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo Brazzaville, is expected to win this Sunday's election, extending his decades-long rule.

The central African nation will on March the 19th head to the polls for the country general election.

Sassou, a former paratrooper first ? took power in the oil-rich Central African nation in a coup in 1979.

The 82 year old leader lost Congo Republic's first multi-party elections in 1992, but seized power ?again in 1997 after a civil war.

Despite his advanced age and a term limit which has fuelled speculation about who will eventually succeed him, he has now ruled for a combined total of almost 42 years, making him Africa's third longest-serving leader, after Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang and Cameroon's Paul Biya. 

Joining Peter Ndoro to unpack this further is Remadji Hoinathy, Senior Researcher for  Central Africa and Great Lake  at the Institute for Security Studies...