A few days after the controversial elections in Gabon, soldiers say they overthrew President Ali Bongo’s government. A group of high-ranking officers appeared on Gabon 24 television on Wednesday and said they had taken power in the African country. The recent elections were not credible and the results were annulled. The state institutions have been dissolved and the borders closed until further notice. According to the Reuters news agency, the government could not be reached for comment.
Just a short time before, the electoral commission had declared Bongo the winner of the presidential election. This received 64.27 percent of the votes in the vote on Saturday. 850,000 of the approximately 2.3 million inhabitants of Gabon were called upon to cast their vote.
After a short-term change in the ballot papers, both Parliament and the President were voted on with just one vote. The initially promising opposition, which had united behind the former Minister of Education and rival candidate Albert Ondo Ossa, saw this as deliberate election manipulation by the ruling party. It limits the chances of the multi-party coalition led by the independent Ondo Ossa. He questioned the legitimacy of the vote on election day and claimed victory even before the official voting results were announced.
International observers were absent from the election. Requests for accreditation from foreign journalists were systematically rejected. A Reuters reporter from the capital Libreville reported that in at least five cases voters had to wait hours for the polling stations to open.
Bongo’s family has ruled for more than half a century
Over the weekend, Bongo’s government shut down internet access, imposed a curfew from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. and banned several French radio stations from broadcasting. A government spokesman justified the blocking of the internet by fighting “false information” and “incitements to violence”. The responsible authority accused the broadcasters France 24, RFI and TV5 Monde of “a lack of objectivity and balance in the reporting of the current general elections”.
Bongo’s family has ruled the oil-rich country, where most residents live in poverty, for 56 years. Ali Bongo took over the post in 2009 from his father Omar Bongo, who ruled from 1967 until his death. He won his first re-election in 2016 by just over 5,000 votes. He was accused of manipulation, and there were serious riots after the election.