As the Gabonese people go to the polls on Saturday to elect their president, Gabon’s outgoing President Ali Bongo Ondimba accused his main rival, Albert Ondo Ossa, of “high treason” on Friday. In return, Ondo Ossa promised a peaceful transition and no “witch hunt” on the eve of the election.
The Gabonese people will vote on Saturday to decide whether or not to entrust a third term to the president, who has been in power for 14 years, against 13 other candidates.
His main rival, Albert Ondo Ossa, who was chosen very late by the main opposition parties, was previously little known to the general public and had only six days to campaign, but his rallies have attracted large crowds.
Based on a presumed conversation, recorded without their knowledge, between Ondo Ossa and Alexandre Barro Chambrier, a prominent opposition figure, Ali Bongo accused his main rival of making statements that could be considered “high treason”.
🇬🇦 Initially seen as the son of his father Omar, who had been in power for 40 years, Ali Bongo is running for a third term on August 26 in Gabon. Portrait. pic.twitter.com/Mknljd2lMM
Show of strength
And he promises legal action: according to him, both opponents are calling for violence to seize power and the support of “foreign armies,” he declared on Friday in the government daily L’Union.
The head of state gathered several thousand of his supporters near the administrative district for a massive rally.
Surrounded by his close associates, on an imposing stage surrounded by two giant screens, he addressed a crowd waving white or blue caps, or signs reading “I vote for Ali”.
Ondo Ossa claims to want to put an end to the “Bongo dynasty” that the opposition accuses of misgovernance and of leading a power undermined by “corruption” in this small Central African state, which is very rich in oil but where one in three inhabitants lives below the poverty line.
Ali Bongo was elected in 2009 following the death of his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled the country without opposition for over 41 years.
“These schemers,” “who lecture me and who, for over 30 years, have been fed by our country and by the State (…), now want to destroy this country? No, no, no, it’s no, it’s no, it’s no! We will not let it happen!” thundered Bongo, targeting them without naming them, invoking the recording that is the subject of a judicial investigation.
With limited resources in comparison, Ondo Ossa, 69, embarked on a race against time across the country, covering hundreds of kilometers in six days, after the coalition that chose him announced on Tuesday that they had been “prevented from traveling” by “plane,” due to a lack of “authorization”.
“60 years of power for the same family is too much!”
From city to city, the crowds continue to gather, and the live videos broadcast by Alternance 2023, widely followed on Facebook, show a makeshift campaign with limited means, but one that succeeds in occupying the field in this final week.
The economist concluded his campaign on Friday evening in the popular neighborhood of Nzeng Ayong in Libreville, in front of several thousand people as well, and alongside the leaders of the coalition.
“I am not a man of disorder,” Ondo Ossa declared, repeating that “60 years of power for the same family is too much!” in the event that Bongo is reelected.
“He will be treated as a former head of state (…) He can leave in peace,” and there will be no “witch hunt,” he added, promising “change with zero deaths”.
Nearly 850,000 registered voters are called to vote in three elections on the same day: presidential, legislative, and municipal.
The international organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounced the “ban” imposed by the authorities on foreign media, who were refused “all accreditations” to cover the elections, which will also take place without international observers.
And the U.S. State Department emphasized on Friday evening the “importance of electoral observation” in Gabon and called on “all actors to commit to holding free, fair, and peaceful elections”.
With AFP