1000’s of individuals are seen queueing exterior polling stations throughout Libreville, the seaside capital, to forged their ballots.
Voters in Gabon are casting their ballots within the presidential election, as navy chief Brice Oligui Nguema seems to be to cement his grip on energy within the first election since he led the 2023 coup.
Polls opened within the nation at 7am (06:00 GMT) on Saturday, with reviews of hundreds of individuals queueing exterior polling stations throughout Libreville, the seaside capital. Voting shall be held within the nation’s 9 provinces till 6pm native time (17:00 GMT). Outcomes are anticipated to be introduced inside two weeks of the vote.
Practically a million individuals, together with some 28,000 abroad, are registered to vote on this oil-rich however poor African nation of two.3 million individuals.
Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, reporting from Libreville, stated that voters are trying ahead to casting their ballots, however are “caught between hope and worry”.
Nguema, who had been instrumental in ending 55 years of iron-fisted dynastic rule of the Bongo household led by former chief Ali Bongo, has been main in opinion polls. Bongo relations had been accused of looting Gabon’s wealth.
Aurele Ossantanga Mouila, 30, voted for the primary time ever after ending his shift as a croupier in a on line casino.
“I didn’t believe within the earlier regime,” he stated.
Nguema took the function of transitional president whereas overseeing the formation of a authorities that features civilians, tasked with drawing up a brand new structure after the 2023 coup.
The nation is heading to the polls at a time of excessive unemployment, common energy and water shortages, a scarcity of infrastructure and heavy authorities debt.
Nguema ditched his navy uniform as he campaigned for a seven-year time period in opposition to seven rivals, together with Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze, who served as prime minister below Ali Bongo earlier than the coup.
He has predicted a “historic victory” within the election.
“The builder is right here, the particular candidate, the one you referred to as,” Nguema stated on Thursday among the many music and dancing at his closing rally within the capital, Libreville.
However critics accuse Nguema, who had promised handy energy again to civilians, of failing to maneuver on from the years of plunder of the nation’s huge mineral wealth below the Bongos, below whom he served for years.
Bilie By Nze, Nguema’s fundamental opponent, has forged himself because the candidate for a “full rupture”.
“In actuality, it’s an election of whole change. It’s a problem and we’re at a crossroads,” he instructed Al Jazeera.
He has accused Nguema, who led the Republican Guard within the Bongo years, of representing a continuity of the previous system.
Nguema served as former aide-de-camp to Omar Bongo earlier than turning into chief of the presidential guard below his son Ali Bongo.
Whoever wins must meet the excessive hopes of a rustic the place one in three individuals lives beneath the poverty line regardless of its huge useful resource wealth, in accordance with the World Financial institution.
Gabon’s debt rose to 73.3 % of gross home product (GDP) final yr and is projected to achieve 80 % this yr.
