“That’s why I voted for change”, Marie Ange N’no, 40, a civil servant, said outside a polling station in Libreville.
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Three presidential hopefuls withdrew to support the main opposition leader Jean Ping.
Official results from Saturday’s vote are not due out until 1600 GMT on Tuesday and candidates are prohibited by law from making announcements on the likely outcome.
“Ali Bongo has made a decision to ignore the election and to stay in power”, said Mr Ayi.
“There’s a risk that certain people who did so much harm to our country will come back” to power, the president told a crowd of thousands during his last rally in the capital, Libreville.
“We are being careful, we don’t know what is going to happen”, said bakery customer Raymond.
Bakery worker Dieudonne spoke of “hundreds” of baguettes flying off the shelves.
European Union observers said the vote in the oil-rich Central African country was “managed in a way that lacked transparency”. “I encourage Ali Bongo to submit to the verdict of the ballot box”.
Fears that this discontent might degenerate into violence are fuelled by memories of what followed Bongo’s contested victory in the 2009 presidential poll.
But with state machinery and entrenched patronage networks behind him, Bongo, 57, was likely to be returned to power seven years after winning his first election following the death of his father Omar, who ruled for 42 years.
The streets of Libreville remained calm despite the sparring over the result and an acrimonious election campaign.
The tense campaign featured efforts to get Bongo’s candidacy annulled based on claims he was born in Nigeria and therefore is ineligible to be president – claims Bongo dismissed as unfounded.
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.
Ping also has close family ties to the Bongo dynasty: he was formerly married to Omar Bongo’s eldest daughter with whom he had two children.
One third of Gabon’s population lives in poverty, despite the country boasting one of Africa’s highest per capita incomes at $8,300 thanks to pumping 200,000 barrels of oil a day.
Ping said there had been a “total rejection” of Bongo.
About 628,000 of Gabon’s inhabitants were eligible to vote in this weekend’s election.
Earlier on Sunday, Ping had told supporters in the capital Libreville that he was winning the presidential vote.
Ping also vowed to “guarantee complete security” for Bongo and his family if he stepped down from the presidency and pledged there would not be a “witch hunt” once he had departed.
France’s ruling Socialist Party meanwhile issued a statement saying a change of government after decades of Bongo rule “would be a sign of good democratic health”.
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“That’s totally insane… It’s tight, but we are ahead”, he said.
