Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba is under house arrest. The information was provided by state television, which quotes a communiqué from the rebel military. In that same statement it is also announced that one of Ali Bongo’s sons is arrested, accused of treason.
“President Ali Bongo is under house arrest, surrounded by his family and his doctors,” the military said.
A group of Gabonese soldiers announced on television on Wednesday the cancellation of the presidential elections that re-elected Ali Bongo Ondimba on Saturday and the dissolution of all democratic institutions.
The announcement was made in a press release read on Gabon 24, a television channel owned by the country’s Presidency, by a dozen Gabonese soldiers.
After verifying “irresponsible and unpredictable governance that translates into a continuous deterioration of social cohesion that runs the risk of bringing the country into chaos (…) it was decided to defend peace, putting an end to the current regime”, -he declared one of the soldiers
The same army, claiming to speak on behalf of an Institutional Restoration and Transition Committee, claimed that all borders in Gabon were “closed until further notice”.
According to Agence France-Presse journalists, automatic machine gun fire was heard during the television broadcast in Libreville.
Hours earlier, in the middle of the night, at 03:30 (same time in Lisbon), the Gabon Electoral Center (CGE, in its French acronym) had made public on state television, without prior notice, the official results of the elections. presidential election.
The electoral commission claimed that President Ali Bongo Ondimba, in power for 14 years, won a third term in Saturday’s elections with 64.27% of the votes cast, defeating his main rival Albert Ondo Ossa, who won the 30.77% of the votes.
The announcement was made at a time when Gabon was under a curfew and internet access was suspended across the country, measures imposed by the government on election day Saturday.
The Government alleged the risk of violence, after the statements of Ondo Ossa, who demanded to be declared the winner.
Source: TSF
