Hundreds of thousands were called in Gabon to elect a new parliament and president. However, the opposition accused the government of electoral manipulation. The government now blocked the internet and imposed a curfew.
In Gabon, the parliament and the president were newly elected. Almost 850,000 people were called to the elections in the Central African country.
Observers were expecting another election victory for President Ali Bongo Ondimba and his governing PDG party. His challenger Albert Ondo Ossa accused the presidential camp of “orchestrated fraud” in the afternoon.
Late opening and missing ballots
According to his communications consultant, Ondo Ossa’s vote was delayed by hours because, according to his party, the election material had been delivered late. “Ali Bongo and his henchmen have multiplied the elements of the fraud,” Ondo Ossa said in a live stream on the online service Facebook after casting his vote.
Numerous other polling stations in the country were also opened late or not at all, said the chairman of the opposition alliance Alternance 2023, François Ndong Obiang, the AFP news agency. In addition, the ballot papers with the name of Ondo Ossa were missing in many offices.
Locked internet and curfew
Referring to the threat of online disinformation, the Gabonese government blocked access to the Internet until further notice and imposed a night-time curfew from Sunday “to prevent any misconduct and to protect the safety of the entire population,” according to the Reuters news agency statement read out on national television that evening.
During the 2016 election, observers also accused Bongo of vote-rigging. Serious riots broke out as a result.
The 64-year-old took over the presidency in 2009 from his father, who had ruled the country since 1967. Overall, the Bongo clan has been in power in the West African country for 55 years. Despite the country’s oil wealth, the majority of its approximately 2.3 million inhabitants live in poverty.