Senior Gabonese military officers have gone on national television and declared their seizure of power, claiming they represent all of Gabon’s security and defence forces and that they do not believe the results of the recent general election.
They declared the election results null and void, all borders closed indefinitely, and all state institutions dissolved. After the televised appearance, a Reuters reporter claimed to have heard gunfire in Libreville.
“In the name of the Gabonese people… we have decided to defend the peace by putting an end to the current regime,” the officers said on television.
After a delayed general election that the opposition branded fraudulent, the Gabonese electoral centre announced on Wednesday that incumbent President Ali Bongo had won a third term with 64.27 percent of the vote.
Elections chief Michel Stephane Bonda made the early morning announcement, saying that Bongo’s primary competitor, Albert Ondo Ossa, received 30.77 percent of the vote. Bongo’s camp deemed the allegations of election fraud to be false.
With Bongo trying to extend his family’s 56-year grip on power and the opposition pushing for change in the oil- and cocoa-rich but struggling poverty nation, tensions were rising and chaos was feared after Saturday’s presidential, parliamentary, and legislative votes.
Concerns regarding the fairness of the election had been raised due to a lack of international observers, the suspension of some foreign broadcasts, and the authorities’ intention to shut down internet service and impose a nighttime curfew statewide following the ballot.
About a dozen additional officers, all dressed in military fatigues and wearing berets, stood solemnly behind the one who read the joint statement on television.
They call themselves the “committee of transition and the restoration of institutions,” State institutions such as the government, the senate, the national assembly, the constitutional court, and the election body were all disbanded as a result of their actions.
If this coup succeeds, it will be the seventh in west and central Africa since the year 2020. There has been a setback to democratic progress due to coups in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Niger.
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