The Gabonese Elections Center announced on Wednesday the re-election of President Ali Bongo with 64.27% of the votes against 30.77% for his main rival Albert Ondo Ossa, who had denounced “fraud orchestrated by the Bongo camp” two hours before the voting closes on Saturday.
The President of Gabon Ali Bongo Ondimba, in power for 14 years, obtained a third mandate during Saturday’s elections with 64.27% of the votes cast, the national authority in charge of the election announced Wednesday August 30.
Ali Bongo beat, in a single round vote, his main rival Albert Ondo Ossa, who received only 30.77% of the votes, as well as 12 other candidates who only collected crumbs, detailed the president of the Gabonese Elections Center (CGE), Michel Stéphane Bonda, on state television Gabon 1ère.
“At the end of the centralization of the results (…) Bongo Ondimba Ali is elected with 293,919 votes or 64.27%,” declared Stéphane Bonda. The participation rate was 56.65%.
Fraud accusations
Albert Ondo Ossa had denounced “fraud orchestrated by the Bongo camp” two hours before the close of voting on Saturday, and already claimed victory. His camp on Monday urged Ali Bongo to “organize, without bloodshed, the transfer of power” on the basis of a count carried out according to him by his own scrutineers, and without producing any supporting document.
The official results were announced in the middle of the night, at 3:30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. GMT), on state television without any announcement of the event having been made beforehand. In the middle of a curfew, therefore, and while the Internet is cut throughout the country, two measures decreed by the government on Saturday before the closing of the polling stations, in order, according to him, to guard against the dissemination of “false news” and possible “violence”.
Source : France 24
