The camp of Albert Ondo Ossa, President Ali Bongo Ondimba’s main rival in Saturday’s election in Gabon, reaffirmed on Monday that it had won, in the absence of official results, and called on the Head of State to “organize transfer of power”.
Mr. Ondo Ossa, behind whom the main opposition parties have lined up, had already denounced “fraud” by the Bongo camp on Saturday, two hours before the polls closed, and asked to be “declared the winner”.
“We call on our compatriots who gravitate around this power that is more devoid of legitimacy than ever, particularly those around Mr. Ali Bongo Ondimba” to “bow humbly before the will of the Gabonese people”, declared Mike Jocktane, the director of campaign of Mr. Ondo Ossa, during a press conference in Libreville.
“What is now expected of Mr. Ali Bongo Ondimba, (c’) is that he accepts the sovereign choice of the Gabonese people, that he respects it and that he organizes, without bloodshed, the transfer of power to favor of Professor Albert Ondo Ossa”, hammered Mr. Jocktane.
In support of this request, he invoked a “trend”, which he quantified, based on “the consolidation of more than 50% of the votes” cast, without presenting any supporting document.
Gabonese law prohibits any media from reproducing figures put forward by Mr. Jocktane or anyone else, pending the official results that only the Gabonese Elections Center (CGE) is empowered by law to proclaim.
Questioned several times by AFP on Sunday and Monday, the CGE refused to give any indications on the progress of the counting and on the date and time of the proclamation of the official results.
Saturday, at the scheduled time for the closing of the polls, the government suspended internet access throughout the country and decreed a curfew for the next day, citing the risk of violence after the statements of Mr. Ondo Ossa who demanded to be proclaimed the winner.
Internet access was still not restored on Monday evening and the army and the police had set up roadblocks throughout the capital in the evening to enforce the curfew for the second consecutive night.
Mr. Bongo, 64, was elected in 2009 after the death of his father Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled the small oil-rich Central African state for more than 41 years. The opposition denounces the perpetuation of a “Bongo dynasty” of more than 55 years to date.
President Bongo, head of state for 14 years, is seeking a third term, reduced from 7 to 5 years. Saturday’s elections included three ballots, presidential, legislative and municipal, all in a single round.
The main platform of the opposition parties, Alternance 2023, had finally chosen its “consensual candidate” in the person of Mr. Ondo Ossa, 69, only eight days before the ballot, after a bitter struggle between six contenders. . This had left only six days for this associate professor of economics at the University of Libreville, and former minister of Omar Bongo, to campaign.
– “Incomprehension”
When the results of the 2016 presidential election were announced, won by only 5,500 votes by Mr. Bongo, his main rival Jean Ping denounced fraud and declared himself president.
A wave of violence in Libreville then killed at least five people, according to the government. The opposition had reported about thirty victims, killed by the bullets of the police.
Three days before the ballot on Saturday, the justice opened an investigation into an alleged recording of a conversation attributed to Mr. Ondo Ossa and another opponent, for remarks which “suggest an attack on state security” .
On Saturday evening, in addition to the internet shutdown, the media watchdog also announced a “temporary ban on broadcasting in Gabon” of French television channels France 24 and TV5 Monde and Radio France internationale (RFI), to which he was “blamed for a lack of objectivity and balance”.
On Sunday, RFI and France 24 expressed their “misunderstanding” of this decision, which “deprives Gabonese of two of their main sources of reliable and independent information”.
The government had granted no accreditation to foreign journalists wishing to come and cover the elections and refused entry to the territory to others.
28/08/2023 21:58:21 – Libreville (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
