August (1960)

_#_Executive branch: president, prime minister, Council of Ministers
(cabinet)

_#_Legislative branch: unicameral National People's Assembly
(Assemblee Nationale Populaire)

_#_Judicial branch: Supreme Court (Cour Supreme)

_#_Leaders:

Chief of State--President Denis SASSOU-NGUESSO (since 8 February
1979);

Head of Government--Prime Minister Brig. Gen. Louis-Sylvain
GOMA (since 9 January 1991)

_#_Political parties and leaders: Congolese Labor Party
(PCT), President Denis SASSOU-NGUESSO, leader; note--multiparty system
legalized, with over 50 parties established

_#_Suffrage: universal at age 18

_#_Elections:

President--last held 26-31 July 1989 (next to be held July 1994);
results--President SASSOU-NGUESSO unanimously reelected leader of the
PCT by the Party Congress, which automatically made him president;

People's National Assembly--last held 24 September 1989 (next
to be held NA 1994); results--PCT was the only party;
seats--(153 total) single list of candidates nominated by the PCT

_#_Communists: unknown number of Communists and sympathizers

_#_Other political or pressure groups: Union of Congolese Socialist
Youth (UJSC), Congolese Trade Union Congress (CSC), Revolutionary Union
of Congolese Women (URFC), General Union of Congolese Pupils and Students
(UGEEC)

_#_Member of: ACCT, ACP, AfDB, BDEAC, CCC, CEEAC, ECA, FAO, FZ, G-77,
GATT, IBRD, ICAO, IDA, IFAD, IFC, ILO, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT, INTERPOL,
IOC, ITU, LORCS, NAM, OAU, UDEAC, UN, UNAVEM, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU,
WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

_#_Diplomatic representation: Ambassador Roger ISSOMBO; Chancery at
4891 Colorado Avenue NW, Washington DC 20011; telephone (202) 726-5500;

US--Ambassador James Daniel PHILLIPS; Embassy at Avenue
Amilcar Cabral, Brazzaville (mailing address is B. P. 1015, Brazzaville,
or Box C, APO New York 09662-0006); telephone (242) 83-20-70 or 83-26-24

_#_Flag: red with the national emblem in the upper hoist-side corner;
the emblem includes a yellow five-pointed star above a crossed hoe and
hammer (like the hammer and sickle design) in yellow, flanked by two
curved green palm branches; uses the popular pan-African colors of
Ethiopia

_*_Economy
_#_Overview: Oil has supplanted forestry as the mainstay of the
economy, providing about two-thirds of government revenues and
exports. In the early 1980s rapidly rising oil revenues enabled Congo
to finance large-scale de