The authorities of Gabon They disconnected Internet and imposed a Curfew after the celebration of the presidential, parliamentary and local elections this Saturday and after the opposition denounced this Fraud from the party of the outgoing President, Ali Bongo.
“The Government of the Republic of Gabon, We are aware of the potential dangers of misinformation and manipulation on social media “has decided to suspend access to the internet across the country from today and until further notice,” Gabon Télévision, government spokesman and communications minister, told state television. Rodrigue Mboumba Bissawou.
“To prevent riots and ensure the safety of the entire population, a curfew has been imposed across the country,” he added. It is valid from Sunday, August 27 until further notice between 19:00 local time (18:00 GMT) and 06:00 local time (5:00 GMT).
The announcement by the government spokesman will be made after this afternoon Albert Ondo Ossa69, candidate for the presidency of Gabon from the main opposition platform Alternance 2023 will be “a orchestrated fraud” for outgoing President Ali Bongo’s Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) in the elections.
More than 846,800 Gabonese people were called to the polls this Saturday, a day marked by elections Delays in the opening of some schools of up to several hours.
The elections take place without the presence of foreign journalists after the Gabonese authorities have done so rejected all their requests for accreditation to cover the elections, as confirmed by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
The Observation Mission European Unionwho took part in the 2016 presidential elections in which warned that “anomalies” had occurred who questioned the process and its end result.
In these one-round elections, Ali Bongo, 64, He is running for a third five-year term. (allowed by the constitution) after coming to power after the death of his father, Omar Bongo, who had ruled the country since 1967.
There are 12 opposition candidates, including Ondo Ossa, economics professor at Omar Bongo University in Libreville, 2009 presidential candidate and former Minister of Higher Education and Research.
The novelty of these elections is that the presidential and parliamentary elections, which are combined for the first time, are voted on in a single ballot. this system, rejected by the oppositionstrengthens Bongo’s party because it has parliamentary candidates in every constituency and harms independent presidential candidatess, like Ondo Ossa, who have no parliamentary candidates to add to their list.
This vote takes place in the shadow of the 2016 presidential electionwhen Bongo won the opposition Jean Ping by fewer than 6,000 votes and The opposition denounced electoral fraud. This triggered a post-election crisis violent protests, heavily suppressedwhere the protesters came to set fire to the National Assembly.