The results of the presidential election in Gabon are in at last, and sitting president Ali Bongo -son of the late Omar Bongo who held office for 42 consecutive years- won the single-round election (by a few thousand votes, 49,80% against 48,23% - participation rate 59,46%) despite his opponent Jean Ping managing to create a large coalition front with the other opposition figures.
The final counting took 4 days to be announced by the electoral commission, that only gave the numbers at the region level : In the Haut-Ogooué district, voters turnout was over 99% and Bongo won around 95% of the votes.
Cue riots, especially in the second largest city Port-Gentil, the national assembly being partially burnt, and the army in the streets if not outright attacking Mr Ping headquarters with sadly already a handful of casualties. Situation is pretty tense, the EU (including France) & USA are demanding for all results at the booth level to be made public (denied by the electoral commission on pretext of the law down there) and expatriates are advised to stay indoors at the moment.
Opposition leader Jean Ping is a 72 years old high level diplomat who studied in Paris, the son of a Gabonese mother and a Chinese father (brought here probably through a French colonial emigration program), former State Minister of Bongo Sr. for over 15 years and also former companion of the oldest sister of Ali, Pascaline Bongo. So it's more a whisper than a wind of potential change...
Gabon is a small country on the west coast of the continent, below Cameroon, and for long (and still, a few hundred French soldiers are still stationed permanently near the presidential palace) the shining example of "Françafrique" post-colonialism* with French public and private interests having shares in the oil, the maritime transit and the uranium. It's mineral rich for a small population, so in theory and average Gabonese are somewhat a bit more well off than most of Africa. The Bongo clan has a tight grip over power but I guess you could say that in this domain too Gabon is slighty better off than some of its neighbors : they are far from the bloodliest leaders
.
* A famous quote by Omar Bongo, pictured below :
"Africa without France is like a car without a driver... France without Africa is a car without gas."A true
Friend of France™, Omar always made sure to ship very generous contributions to French presidential candidates...