Gabonese vote on Saturday to decide whether or not to give President Ali Bongo Ondimba a third term against 13 other candidates, one chosen very late by the main opposition parties, Albert Ondo Ossa, little known until now but whose meetings have since drawn large crowds.
Nearly 850,000 registered voters in this small country in Central Africa, rich in its oil and sparsely populated (2.3 million inhabitants), are called to vote for three elections on the same day: presidential, legislative and municipal.
Mr. Ondo Ossa promises that the opposition, “united” behind him, will “drive out” Mr. Bongo and his all-powerful Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) from power and put an end to a “Bongo dynasty” at the head since more than 55 years of power still plagued by “corruption” and bad governance.
Ali Bongo, president for 14 years, was first elected in 2009 after the death of his father Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled the country for more than 41 years.
Based on an alleged conversation, recorded without their knowledge, between Mr. Ondo Ossa and a tenor of the opposition, Ali Bongo in return accuses his main rival of having made remarks that could be assimilated to a “crime of high treason”. and promises prosecution: the two opponents call, according to him, for violence to seize power and for the support of “foreign armies”.
– “Intriguing” –
“These intriguers”, “who give me lessons and who, for more than 30 years, have been fed (…) by the State (…), would now (…) want to destroy this country? (. ..) We won’t let it happen!” thundered the head of state on Friday in front of tens of thousands of supporters in a meeting with rockstar logistics in a rather affluent administrative district in the center of Libreville.
Mr. Ondo Ossa, 69, little known to the general public until then, was chosen by the main opposition parties eight days before the election and only had six to beat the campaign when Mr. Bongo, 64, has been leading a high-profile tour across the country for several months, with considerable resources, “those of the State” accuses the opposition.
But Mr. Ondo Ossa brings together comparable crowds in places.
The presidential and legislative polls are grouped together in a single vote through a single ballot for presidential and parliamentary candidates from the same party.
An “iniquitous bulletin”, vociferates the opposition, which denounces a “fraudulent maneuver” to favor the Bongo camp by flouting “the freedom to vote” and “the separation of powers”.
The main opposition platform, Alternance 2023, therefore lined up to everyone’s surprise behind an Ondo Ossa independent candidate, facing five others who withdrew in favor of him, including at least two tenors backed by solidly established parties. . Since then, other platforms and opposition figures and important civil society organizations have been calling to vote for him.
This associate university professor of economics, former minister of Omar Bongo, urges Gabonese to “ignore” the legislative elections to focus on the presidential election, “the only stake in the elections”. Because, as an “independent”, therefore without a party, the single ballot in his name does not include a pretender to the deputy.
The opposition had already criticized a “modification of the rules of the game” five months ago to tailor a re-election to the incumbent, by ironing the ballot from two to one round, therefore winnable by a relative majority for Mr. Bongo against to a dispersed opposition between 13 candidates.
In 2016, he was re-elected but laboriously, with only 5,500 votes ahead of opponent Jean Ping, who denounced “fraud”.
This scenario, the CEO wants to avoid it with a “cash victory”.
For the legislative elections, the opposition’s call to “ignore” them but also the omnipotence of the PDG, single party until 1990 and then arch-dominant, should ensure him a massive victory. He already enjoys an overwhelming majority in the outgoing National Assembly.
Mr. Ondo Ossa has promised to dissolve the new lower house if he is elected president.
A stroke in October 2018 left Mr. Bongo invisible for many months and part of the opposition continues, almost five years later, to question his physical and intellectual abilities to lead the country. The majority, she denounces campaigns centered on her health, “without any other program”.
Gabon is one of the richest countries in Africa in GDP per capita, thanks to its oil, its manganese and its wood in particular. But, despite the regime’s efforts, it fails to sufficiently diversify, according to the World Bank, an economy that imports almost everything.
“The country is struggling to translate the wealth of its resources into sustainable and inclusive growth” and a third (32.9%) of its inhabitants live below the poverty line, writes the institution in April 2023.
08/26/2023 04:41:27 – Libreville (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
