Senior military officials from Gabon have declared themselves in control on national television, alleging the most recent election was invalid, and claiming to speak for all of the country’s security and defence forces.
They claimed that state institutions had been disbanded, the election results had been annulled, and all borders had been blocked indefinitely.
After the television appearance, loud shooting could be heard in Libreville, the country’s capital, according to a Reuters correspondent.
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“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.
Ali Bongo, the current president of Gabon, won a third term in office with 64.27% of the vote, according to the Gabonese electoral centre on Wednesday. This came after a general election marred by delays and criticized as fraudulent by the opposition.
Albert Ondo Ossa, Bongo’s primary rival, came in second with 30.77%, said Michel Stephane Bonda, the elections chief, who made the announcement early in the morning. Ondo Ossa’s charges of electoral fraud were denied by Bongo’s team.
After Saturday’s presidential, parliamentary, and legislative elections, in which Bongo sought to maintain his family’s 56-year hold on power and the opposition pressed for change in the oil- and cocoa-rich but impoverished country, tensions were high amid worries of upheaval.
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Concerns regarding the integrity of the election were raised by the absence of foreign observers, the suspension of some foreign broadcasts, and the authorities’ decision to shut down internet connectivity and impose a nighttime curfew over the country following the vote.
A dozen officers in military fatigues and berets stood solemnly behind the one reading the unified statement on television.
Members of the “committee of transition and the restoration of institutions” have been identified by the group. The government, senate, national assembly, constitutional court, and election body were among the state institutions they declared dissolved.
