The electoral soap opera in Gabon continues, with the Internet cut off and the suspension of media coverage by foreign channels, including “RFI TV 5 -MONDE and France 24”.
The presence of international observers was ruled out before the vote.
Thus this general media blackout gives way to an electoral closed door, with a moment of counting of the “locked” ballot papers.
The transparency that should allow everyone to monitor the counting of the votes, an essential act to designate the winner, at the end of the one and only round of voting, is not there.
These various acts, in defiance of the basic right of citizens to control the various stages of the process, demonstrate that the Bongo regime, after more than 50 years (reign of father and son), is more autocratic than ever.
Even diminished by illness (CVA), Ali Bongo still seems to hold the reins of power well and is doing everything to grant himself a third presidential term.
His former opponent, Jean Ping had analyzed the situation, and had drawn the logical conclusion that there would be no free and democratic election and had decided not to apply.
The course of events proves him right.
Nothing is left to chance, to padlock the verdict of the ballot boxes and the 18 adversaries of Bongo son, are, ultimately, only stooges.
But, if the Gabonese situation is debated, under various other practices, the States of Central Africa, with one or two exceptions, consecrate “dynasties” to power.
If the means of achieving this may differ, the result is the same: families govern, as in non-constitutional monarchies.
The question is not moral; it is political.
In this regard, the Gabonese opponents ended up supporting a “consensual” candidate, Albert Ondo Osso, to seriously challenge the Bongo heir.
They were wrong (these opponents), to have waited until the 25th hour to make this common sense choice.
They should have opted for lucidity and efficiency, earlier, to give themselves a real chance of jostling Ali Bongo, physically impaired.
Such a choice could have enabled them to further mobilize a large segment of Gabon’s 850,000 voters.
The opposition missed a good opportunity to weigh in significantly and shake the regime.
The cries of Ondo Osso who denounces fraud, are sword strokes in the water.
What is to be feared are violent scuffles during and after the announcement of the results.
It is this fear that is pushing the authorities to impose, right now, a “media blackout”.
To repress behind closed doors and to pass the pill of a new forfeiture against democracy.
