The main opposition platform in Gabon on Thursday asked the soldiers who overthrew President Ali Bongo Ondimba to complete the counting of ballots to recognize the “victory” of its candidate.
The Alternance 2023 platform also “invited the defense and security forces to the discussion in order to evaluate, in a patriotic and responsible framework, the situation and to find, among Gabonese, the best solution” to “allow the country to exit grown from this situation.
“Present in front of each polling station and having watched over the transport of the ballot boxes, the security and defense forces are the first witnesses of the large victory of Professor Albert Ondo Ossa”, assured the press Mike Jocktane, spokesperson for 'Alternation 2023.
According to the results officially proclaimed an hour before the coup, and which the putschists considered rigged, Mr. Ondo Ossa had collected 30.77% of the votes against 64.27% for Ali Bongo, in power for 14 years.
After having warmly thanked, in the name of the "grateful Fatherland", the army for having "standing up against an electoral coup d'état" and thus having "spared" Gabon the loss of "human lives", Mr. Jocktane invited her to “supervise” the “resumption of the process of centralization of the results” of the presidential election on Saturday which “will see the victory of Mr. Ondo Ossa at the polls made official”.
On Wednesday, upon taking power, the military “cancelled” the elections and dissolved all institutions. And on Thursday, the spokesperson for the new strongman announced that he, General Brice Oligui Nguema, will be sworn in on Monday as “President of the transition”, without specifying the duration of this transition.
Source: Burkina Information Agency