President Ali Bongo’s major poll rival, Jean Ping, continues to announce that he has won Saturday’s election, even as the national electoral body is yet to make any official result declaration. Considering several media reports stating that the election was closely contested by the two candidates, there are fears of that Ping’s statements may incite post-election violence if the election results do not favour him.
On Tuesday, Jean Ping of the opposition Démocratie Nouvelle party said that the election results his team has collated from almost all parts of the country show he has defeated President Bongo. Before now, Ping said on Sunday, “I am elected. I am waiting for the outgoing president to call me to congratulate me.” Then, late on Tuesday, he emphasised this further by stating: “Jean Ping’s victory is no longer in doubt.”
In Bongo’s camp, the reaction is not entirely parallel to that of Ping’s supporters; there is also a subtle claim of a victory in the presidential election by Bongo himself. President Bongo told his supporters, “be confident, great things await us,” following remarks that he would calmly await the announcement of the national election commission.
Under Gabonese law, election results cannot be declared by any person, other than the Independent National and Permanent Electoral Commission (CENAP). It appears this law has mostly been flouted by Jean Ping. The election result was due on Tuesday, but a statement from the country’s Interior Minister, Pacome Moubelet-Boubeya, announced a postponement of the official announcement by two hours. According to him, the decision to postpone the official declaration was made after the ministry met with the electoral body.
As the Gabonese people anxiously await the outcome of Saturday’s election, tensions are beginning to rise. Already, police and soldiers have been deployed to the streets of Libreville, the capital of Gabon. As a result of Ping’s unrepentant public outburst, the likelihood that any result announced by CENAP will be greeted by a protest is very high.
If Ali Bongo is declared the winner of the election, the already instigated supporters of the opposition may resort to violence, claiming that the result was doctored as earlier alleged, especially as it wasn’t declared at the originally scheduled time. And if Ping wins, that would mean the end of the Bongo family’s 50-year reign in Gabon, which will not necessarily be a welcome situation for Bongo supporters.
Already, the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon has called on both leaders, to “impress upon their supporters the need to show restraint while waiting for the announcement of the provisional results.” Both contestants need to put their country first. Whatever the outcome of the poll may be, and irrespective of who the people have chosen to lead the country, there is no need for the central African country to be plunged into needless crisis. Bongo and Ping should take a cue from world leaders who have shown that the will of the people supersede personal political ambitions.
In March this year, Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou of Benin conceded defeat and congratulated his challenger, Patrice Talon, for winning the presidential election. Last year, in what was termed the dawn of true democracy in Nigeria, the president at the time, President Goodluck Jonathan, called the opposition candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, before the final declaration of the election results to concede defeat and congratulate him. And about three years ago, Mitt Romney of the United States displayed characteristic sportsmanship when he congratulated the sitting President Obama for winning the country’s 2012 presidential poll. Ali Bongo and Jean Ping will do well in emulating such examples and not hinder Gabon’s progress.
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