We Want Government to Return to Civilian Hands - The Opposition in Gabon Gabon's main opposition group, Alternance 2023, called on the ...
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We Want Government to Return to Civilian Hands - The Opposition in Gabon
Gabon's main opposition group, Alternance 2023, called on the international community today Friday to encourage the government that overthrew President Ali Bongo to hand over power to civilians.
Military officers seized power in a coup on Wednesday minutes after Bongo was announced as the winner of the election for the third time.
They put him under house arrest and elected General Brice Oligui Nguema as interim president.
The military government has not said anything about its immediate plan after the end of the Bongo family's nearly sixty years of power.
The army's action caused people to spread out on the streets of Libreville and show their joy.
Since the year 2009, Bongo took power in the country from the hands of his father when he died after becoming the president since 1967.
Opponents say that the family has not done anything to distribute Gabon's oil and mineral wealth to its 2.3 million people, nearly a third of whom live in poverty.
"We are happy that Ali Bongo has been overthrown but we hope that the international community will stand up to ensure the republic and democracy in Gabon by asking the military to return power to civilians," said Alexandra Pangha, spokesperson for the president of Alternance. 2023 Albert Ondo Ossa, told the BBC.
Alternance 2023 said it wants a full recount of votes in Tuesday's election which it says will show Ondo Ossa as the winner.
Gabon's electoral commission said Bongo was re-elected with 64% of the votes cast, while Ondo Ossa got about 31%.
Pangha said that the opposition is hoping to receive an invitation from the military government to discuss the plan to transfer the government of the country in Central Africa and return to the republic system but he said that they have not received anything yet.
Nguema, the leader of the coup d'état, is expected to be sworn in as interim president on Monday, according to the military junta. He will also make his first presidential address at that time.
A photo from a video of General Brice Clothaire Oligui Nguema, people lift him up in the streets of Libreville, Gabon, Aug. 30, 2023. (Gabon24 via AP)
"We think it is foolish for them to take the oath on Monday," Pangha said.
The Peace and Security Committee of the African Union requested last Thursday that the military refrain from interfering in political affairs and called for fair and just elections.
France, which ruled the country of Gabon and other Western countries, condemned the occupation by the army.