Gabon Opposition Urges Coup Leaders To Declare It As Election Winner
Gabon’s opposition coalition calls for army to respect vote results
The main opposition group in Gabon, Alternance 2023, has appealed to the military leaders who seized power from President Ali Bongo Ondimba on Wednesday to finalize the counting of votes from the presidential election held last Sunday and recognize their candidate as the rightful winner.
The coalition also said it was ready to engage in dialogue with the security forces “in order to find a patriotic and responsible solution to the situation.”
The spokesman of the alliance, Mike Jocktane, told reporters that the security forces had witnessed the voting process at every polling station and had supervised the transportation of ballot boxes.
Therefore, they knew that the opposition candidate, Albert Ondo Ossa, a university professor, had won the election “clearly and legitimately,” he said.
The military coup was announced shortly after the national electoral commission declared that Bongo had secured a third term with 64.27 percent of the vote, while Ondo Ossa had received 30.77 percent.
Before the announcement, Ondo Ossa had denounced Bongo’s “fraud” and demanded him to step down peacefully.
Jocktane also expressed his gratitude to the army for preventing an “electoral coup d’etat” and saving lives.
He urged the army to “oversee” the resumption of the tallying of votes from the presidential election, which he said would “confirm Mr. Ondo Ossa’s victory at the ballot box”.
