Gabon called on candidates in Saturday’s presidential election to refrain from declaring victory as votes are still being counted, warning it won’t tolerate any “interference” with the electoral process.
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Gabon’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba addresses the media at Nairobi National Park near Nairobi, Kenya, April 30, 2016. Ali Bongo succeeded his father Omar Bongo who died in 2009 after more than four decades in office.
Bongo, whose family has governed for almost 50 years, has called for calm and for people to wait for official results on Tuesday. In 2009, Bongo won with 41.73 percent of the vote. On Twitter, his spokesman Alain Claude Bilie By Nzé called Ping’s news conference “the start of an odious attempt at a coup de force”.
In comments broadcast overnight on state-owned television, the spokesman went even further, “Even if no figure can or should be given at this stage, we are, in light of information we are receiving, able to say that our candidate. will claim victory”.
Earlier Sunday, the country’s interior ministry said in a statement that it was illegal to proclaim results before the electoral commission’s official results are made public – an announcement that is expected on Tuesday.
Bongo’s camp said on Sunday that it was set to win the single-round contest and accused Ping’s supporters of fraud, charges that could presage confrontation between the two sides.
An oil producer with a population of less than 2 million, Gabon is one of Africa’s richest countries but declining oil output and falling prices have resulted in budget cuts and provided fodder for opposition claims that average people have struggled under Bongo’s leadership. His re-election bid was also hobbled by a series of high-profile defections from the ruling party.
Ping said he had told the American and French ambassadors in Libreville that he meant to guarantee the security of Bongo and his family, who have ruled the nation of some two million people for almost 50 years.
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He repeated the claims he made over the weekend that he was the victor, calling on Bongo to step down to allow for “the transfer of power”.
