Saturday, September 5, 2009

IN GABON: Bongo promised to cruch any civil unrest, the situation is therefore critical

On June 8th, President Omar Bongo died and the country entered in a transition period an which an interim President wos sword in in the person of Rose Francine Rogombe.

The new interim President who is a member of the state party PDG has to led the election process, the date set for the election to take place was August 30, 2009 even though the opposition indicate that a longer period was needed to properly prepare the election. Indeed, the electoral list whith count for the 800 000 electors for a population of 1 300 000 seems unrealistic and has not been updated properly.

The election process has been full of irregularities (i.e. problem with the electoral list, only a few days given to Gabonese people to register themselves, issues the day of the voter such as fraudulent registration of strangers, paralell voting booths, etc).

Despite all the request for a longer time to better prepare the election, the gouvernment maintained the election to take place on August 30, 2009. People still came in numbers on that date and a public count of the votes was made at the end with "proces verbal" signed by all authorized members of the dominant party and the opposition.
A copy of that PV was given to each candidates.

The results of the election was supposed to come out on september 2nd, the Gabonese people who feared their votes to be stolen spent the night with all the leaders of the opposition at the site of the CENAP, the organism in charge of collecting all the PV and indicating the winner of the election. This morning, some military people were sent to spread out the people doing the sitting at the CENAP including the leaders of the opposition. One of them Mr. Pierre Mamboundou was hurt, another one Mr. Andre Mba Obame is at an unknown location, we do not knwo if he is detained or not.

On the basis of the PV signed the day of the public count taking place at each voting stations around the country and abroad, Mr. Ali Bongo who is the son of the President Omar Bongo, representing the PDG came 3rd. Mr. Mba Obame complained yesterday that some PV were re-written to give false results. Today, we receid the news on TV that Mr. Ali Bongo was elected President of Gabon. The country is now knowing some civil unrests as results are contested. We heard that the site of the company TOTAL in Port Gentil has been put in fire, the consulate of France has also burnt (France is viewed by many as supportive of the power in place) and that three provinces might have stated they would do sessassion.

Mr. Ali Bongo has promised to cruch any civil unrest, the situation is therefore critical.

Karie

Posted by TheBlacklist