Gabon’s government announced a nationwide curfew and cut off Internet access on Saturday evening as voting in major national elections was wrapping up.
Gabonese Minister of Communications Rodrigue Mboumba Bissawou said on state television that there would a nightly curfew from 7pm to 6am.
He said Internet access was being restricted indefinitely, adding that there had been calls for violence and the spreading of disinformation.
The announcement came after voters cast ballots to elect new local leaders, national legislators and the country’s next president.
Incumbent Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba was seeking a third seven-year term to continue a 55-year political dynasty. Bongo came to power in 2009 after the death of his father, Omar Bongo, who ruled the country for 41 years.
Bongo, 64, won his current term in office by a narrow margin in 2016 amid violent protests. This year, the opposition united in favor of his main challenger, economics professor Albert Ondo Ossa, one week before Saturday’s elections.
Around 847,000 people were eligible to cast ballots on Saturday. Voters in Libreville said polling stations opened late. Voting was scheduled to begin in the morning, but many election sites had failed to open as of 2pm.
“I’ve finally voted. I’ve been here since 6am. It was at 12 noon that I was able to vote, because the polling station opened at 11am,” said Ballack Obame, a former student leader.
“I’ve never seen an election in Gabon that doesn’t start before 10 o’clock. It’s really sad. I’m going home,” said Theophile Obiang, a pensioner leaning on his cane.
Authorities did not explain the reasons for the delays or indicate when results would be announced.
“Voters must benefit from the 10-hour period provided for by electoral law,” said Paulette Missambo, an independent candidate who withdrew from the presidential race in favor of Ossa.
Ossa’s platform revolves around breaking Gabon out of the “status quo.” Ossa said that if elected, he would dissolve the Gabonese National Assembly, redraw the electoral map and organize a new legislative election, with a goal of forming a government committed to addressing economic inequality.
“Sixty years in power is too much. I’m not afraid of [President Bongo],” Ossa said after casting his ballot at a Libreville school on Saturday afternoon.
Every vote held in Gabon since the country’s return to a multi-party system in 1990 has ended in violence. Clashes between government forces and protesters following the 2016 elections killed four people, according to official figures.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
RSS