Gabon’s main opposition coalition, the Alternance 2023 platform, which rallied behind a single candidate, Albert Ondo Ossa, to challenge incumbent President Ali Bongo Ondimba in the August 26 presidential election, called Sunday his supporters to ignore the legislative elections to be held the same day.

During the same meeting in Libreville, the tenors of the opposition again accused the government of having introduced at the last moment a single ballot for the presidential and legislative elections. A “maneuver” intended, according to them, to promote the re-election of Ali Bongo, in power for fourteen years, and his all-powerful Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG).

The Gabonese Elections Center (CGE), which governs the polls, imposed it a month ago: the person who wants to vote in his constituency for a deputy will be obliged to vote, with the same ballot, for the candidate of his presidential party, or vice versa. However, Mr. Ondo Ossa, an independent, does not represent any party and he will therefore not have a candidate for the legislative elections on his ballot, which will oblige the voter who chooses to vote for him in the presidential election to give up voting for a deputy. The opposition denounces an “unfair ballot” flouting “the freedom to vote” and the separation of powers.

“Down with the CEO, down with Bongo”

Alternance 2023 had six candidates until Friday August 18 when, after long negotiations, it finally opted for Mr. Ondo Ossa. To the great surprise of the Gabonese because this outsider, little known to the public, was chosen to the detriment of several opposition figures, including two backed by old, well-established parties.

The five who withdrew from the ballot took turns on the podium of Alternance 2023 on Sunday to ask supporters shouting “Down with the CEO, down with Bongo”, to vote “only for Professor Ondo Ossa” on August 26 and ignore the legislative ones. Mr. Ondo Ossa had assured AFP on Friday that in the event of victory he would dissolve the new National Assembly for new legislation.

The opposition is chronically very divided in Gabon and the late and laborious choice of Alternance 2023, just one week before the election – facing an Ali Bongo who is leading an intense, high-profile campaign with enormous financial resources – risks hampering the possibilities of an alternation, analyze the experts. Especially since the CEO and his allies dominate almost unchallenged the National Assembly of this small oil state among the richest in Africa, but of which a third of the inhabitants live below the poverty line according to the World Bank.

Thirteen candidates claiming to be from the opposition will face Mr. Bongo, for a single-round ballot, which will designate the winner by relative majority. The opposition has constantly denounced a “dynastic” power, in the hands of the Bongo family for fifty-five years.

Ali Bongo Ondimba, 64, was first elected in 2009 on the death of his father Omar Bongo, who had ruled the country for more than 41 years, then narrowly re-elected in 2016. ahead of Jean Ping, behind whom part of the opposition had rallied, just a fortnight before the election.