Image: Gabon’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba votes during the presidential election in Libreville, Gabon, August 27, 2016.
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Jean Ping, Gabon’s main opposition presidential candidate, says he has won the elections despite similar claims by the rival camp led by incumbent Omar Bongo.
After his claim of victory on Sunday, Bongo responded by saying that he was “calmly” awaiting the results while his supporters said that it was “dangerous and illegal” to declare a victor before the official announcement.
“We know that Ali Bongo will try to cheat, just like he did in 2009”, Ping said about the previous elections, which were unsuccessfully challenged before the country’s top court.
Bongo aims to prolong 50-year family rule in Gabon election was posted in World of TheNews International – https://www.thenews.com.pk on August 28, 2016 and was last updated on August 28, 2016.
A victory by former African Union leader Ping would end a half-century of Bongo family rule.
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The 57-year-old president is a French-educated, Muslim convert serving as foreign and defence minister under his father, who died in officer after 41 years in power.
The campaign ahead of this weekend’s election has been highly acrimonious, with both sides having accused each other of trying to buy voter cards, in some cases for as little as 10,000 Central African francs (15.25 euros, $17) a piece.
“That’s totally insane”, countered Bongo’s spokesman.
A career diplomat, Mr Ping, like the current president, worked for many years in Omar Bongo’s administration.
“You must not sell the skin of the bear before you’ve killed him”, he said, speaking at one of his campaign offices in Libreville.
But earlier this month, the main challengers pulled out and said they would all back Mr Ping.
But fundamental changes are unlikely, as both frontrunners and most minor candidates come from the elite that has governed the country since independence.
Faced with repeated charges of nepotism, Mr Bongo has long insisted he owes his presidency to merit and years of government service. He also served as head of the African Union Commission and president of the UN General Assembly.
Emmanuel Edzang, a voter in Libreville, said the capital had the feeling of a “powder keg”.
There has been growing popular discontent and numerous public sector strikes in recent months.
His extravagant campaign was based around the slogan “Let’s change together”, playing up the roads and hospitals built during his first term.
Bongo has made saving Gabon’s unique wildlife, including pristine equatorial rainforest and elephants, a priority, but voters complain they have more pressing worries.
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Ping has pledged to ensure, if elected, that Gabon would be “sheltered from need and fear”, dismissing the president’s much-touted moves to diversify the economy into rubber and palm oil as mere window dressing.
