Congo Brazzaville’s leading opposition presidential candidate Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas passed away on Sunday, only a day after the African country went to the general election.

Kolelas’ campaign director Christian Cyr Rodrigue Mayanda said he was hospitalised on the eve of the poll and died of Covid-19 as he was being moved to France for further treatment.

“Kolelas died in the medical aircraft which came to get him from Brazzaville on Sunday afternoon,” said Mayanda.

Reports on Saturday had indicated that he was being treated at a private hospital in the capital city Brazzaville, after he contracted the Coronavirus.

Kolelas was missing in action during his final presidential campaign rally Friday after he told some reporters on Thursday that he feared he had contracted malaria on the campaign trail.

A video widely circulated on social media from Friday showed the 61-year-old opposition leader on an oxygen mask with a blood pressure cuff on his arm while lying in a hospital bed.

“My dear compatriots, I am in trouble. I am fighting death. However, I ask you to stand up and vote for change. I would not have fought for nothing,” Kolelas said in the viral video.

In the 2016 presidential poll, he was runners-up to incumbent president Denis Sassou Nguesso, whom he accused of turning the Republic of Congo into a “police state”.

He was the main rival to Nguesso, who has led Congo Brazzaville for 36 years, even as he is set to win yet another re-election in the results which are expected out in days to come.