LIBREVILLE (Reuters) – President Ali Bongo has won a third term in the presidential election with 64.27% of the vote, the Gabonese Election Centre (CGE) said on Wednesday, after a delay-plagued general election that the opposition has denounced as fraudulent.
Announcing the result in the early hours, CGE head Michel Stephane Bonda said Bongo’s main challenger, Albert Ondo Ossa, had come in second place with 30.77%. Bongo’s team have rejected Ondo Ossa’s allegations of electoral irregularities.
Tensions are running high amid fears of unrest after Saturday’s presidential, parliamentary, and legislative vote, which saw Bongo seeking to extend his family’s 56-year grip on power while the opposition pushed for change in the oil-rich but poverty-stricken Central African nation.
A lack of international observers, the suspension of some foreign broadcasts, and the authorities’ decision to cut internet service and impose a nighttime curfew nationwide after the poll has raised concerns about the transparency of the electoral process.
(Reporting by Gerauds Wilfried Obangome; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Gerry Doyle)
