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For Being Born In Nigeria Bongo May Lose Gabon Election by Nobody: 11:49am On Aug 27, 2016 |
The people of Gabon began casting their ballots
Saturday in a vote to decide whether President Ali
Bongo will remain in office or be unseated by a career
diplomat and close associate of his late father, who ran
the country for 41 years.
The election takes place in a climate of persistent
social unrest driven in large part by the economic
impact of the slump in the price of oil, which has long
dominated Gabon's economy.
Bongo, 57, and ex-African Union Commission chief
Jean Ping, 73, who both worked under Omar Bongo
until he died in 2009, are seen as the only credible
candidates among a field of 10.
In the working class district of Rio in the capital
Libreville, a polling station set up at a school opened
shortly before 8:00 am (0700 GMT) -- about an hour
after the scheduled time, an AFP journalist said.
Elsewhere in the capital, voting had not yet started at
several polling stations.
Until recently, Bongo was far and away the favourite,
largely because several prominent politicians had
declared themselves as candidates, thereby dividing the
opposition.
But protracted negotiations led all the key challengers
to pull out and put their weight behind Ping, with the
last of them withdrawing only last week.
Some 628,000 of Gabon's 1.8 million inhabitants are
eligible to take part in the election, whose winner will be
decided by a simple majority after a single round of
voting.
The campaign period has been acrimonious, marked by
months of bitter exchanges between the two main
camps, including accusations, and strenuous denials,
that Bongo was born in Nigeria and therefore ineligible
to run.
On Friday, each side accused the other of trying to gain
an illicit advantage by buying up voter cards in various
parts of the country for sums ranging from 10,000 to
50,000 CFA francs ($20 to $100).
Faced with repeated charges of nepotism, Bongo has
long insisted he owes his presidency to merit and his
years of government service.
His extravagant campaign was based around the
slogan "Let's change together", playing up the roads
and hospitals built during his first term.
In an overt jibe at Ping's long association with his
father, Bongo has also stressed the need to break with
the bad old days of disappearing public funds and
dodgy management of oil revenues.
"There's a risk that certain people who did so much
harm to our country will come back" to power, the
president told a crowd of thousands during his last rally
in the capital, Libreville.
- Former brother-in-law rival -
Ping has pledged to ensure, if elected, that Gabon
would be "sheltered from need and fear," dismissing the
president's much-touted moves to diversify the
economy into rubber and palm oil as mere window
dressing.
Despite boasting one of Africa's highest per capita
incomes at $8,300, a third of Gabon's population live in
poverty.
Unemployment among the young, according to the
World Bank, runs at 35 percent.
Recent months have seen growing popular unrest and
numerous public sector strikes as well as thousands of
layoffs in the oil sector.
Fears that this discontent might degenerate into
violence are fuelled by memories of what followed
Bongo's contested victory in the 2009 presidential poll.
Several people were killed, buildings looted, a ceasefire
imposed and the French consulate in the economic
capital Port-Gentil torched.
On Friday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on
"all political stakeholders, in particular the candidates,
to exercise restraint, abstain from any acts of
incitement or the use of inflammatory statements, and
maintain a peaceful atmosphere before, during and
after the election."
He also urged the candidates to use "legal and
constitutional channels" in the event of any dispute
over the result.
Ping and Bongo go back a long way, having worked for
years together under Bongo senior, who was
responsible for getting Ping his job as chairman of the
AU Commission.
Ping also has close family ties to the Bongo dynasty:
he was formerly married to Omar Bongo's eldest
daughter with whom he had two children.
Ping turned on Bongo in 2014, and in March he told
French daily Le Monde that "Gabon is a pure and
simple dictatorship in the hands of a family, a clan."
Source
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/08/for-being-born-in-nigeria-bongo-may/ |
Re: For Being Born In Nigeria Bongo May Lose Gabon Election by Nobody: 11:50am On Aug 27, 2016 |
.... |
Re: For Being Born In Nigeria Bongo May Lose Gabon Election by somito121(m): 11:51am On Aug 27, 2016 |
he might still win it |
Re: For Being Born In Nigeria Bongo May Lose Gabon Election by mazichika: 12:05pm On Aug 27, 2016 |
May Biafran and igbo spirit lead him to victory! 3 Likes |
Re: For Being Born In Nigeria Bongo May Lose Gabon Election by ojnnaco(m): 12:12pm On Aug 27, 2016 |
Victory is Sure
May God guide him |
Re: For Being Born In Nigeria Bongo May Lose Gabon Election by agwom(m): 12:15pm On Aug 27, 2016 |
I wish him the best |
Re: For Being Born In Nigeria Bongo May Lose Gabon Election by cockoduck: 1:05pm On Aug 27, 2016 |
we all know that Ali Ben is winning |
(1) (Reply)
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