After publishing numbers on Sunday that showed him comfortably in the lead based on a small percentage of votes, Ping called on Monday for Bongo to step down.
Advertisement
The media reported that the election was closely contested between incumbent President Ali Bongo, seeking a second seven-year term, and opposition candidate Jean Ping, a former chairman of the African Union Commission, with the outcome still pending.
“We are confidently waiting and I want to say big thank you to everyone; be confident great things await us”, Ali Bongo told his supporters at his campaign headquarters. During the campaign, Ping said voters in Gabon were ready to turn the page on the Bongo family dynasty, which stretches back to the 1960s.
The Interior Minister Pacome Moubelet-Boubeya confirmed that the certified true results of the August 27 polls will be officially announced by the electoral commission “this Tuesday, August 30 around 17:00” (1600 GMT). Ali Bongo succeeded his father Omar Bongo who died in 2009 after more than four decades in office.
Gabon does not have a run-off system, so the candidate with the most votes in the 10-candidate field will win.
Bongo’s victory in the 2009 vote sparked looting and clashes between protesters and security forces.
He also called upon the Gabonese people to “defend their choice throughout the country and overseas”. Declining oil output and falling prices have resulted in budget cuts in recent years, however, providing fodder for opposition claims that average Gabonese have struggled under his leadership. He said he had told the American and French ambassadors in Libreville that he meant to guarantee the security of Bongo and his family.
Advertisement
“The mission deplores the lack of transparency of the bodies running the election”, said Mariya Gabriel, the head of an European Union mission that observed the elections.
