2023-08-28 21:43:58
Dakar, August 28 (APS) – The Gabonese government has instituted a night curfew starting Sunday from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. after suspending internet across the territory following tensions surrounding the wait results of Saturday’s general election, several media reported.
On Gabonese public television, the Minister of Communication, Rodrigue Mboumba Bissawou, declared that the Government was establishing a night curfew from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. from Sunday and the obligation to request authorization three days before to organize any meeting or event. In the process, he confirmed “the immediate suspension and until further notice of the Internet throughout the territory.
These restrictive measures taken by the Gabonese authorities follow the declaration of the main opponent of outgoing President Ali Bongo.
Leaving the polling station on Saturday, Albert Ondo Ossaa castigated “fraud orchestrated by Ali Bongo and his supporters” after denouncing the late start of the vote in several places due to the delay in setting up electoral material.
Later on social networks, he asked outgoing President Ali Bongo “in power for 14 years, to leave, vouching for his safety”.
The government mentioned “in the name of the higher interests of the Nation, the need to counter calls for violence and false information in social networks, and to prevent any overflow and ensure the safety of the populations”, has indicated the news site of the France 24 channel.
The Gabonese authorities have also decided to temporarily ban the broadcasting of the media France 24, RFI and TV5 Monde, which are accused of a lack of objectivity and balance in the treatment of information in connection with the general elections in progress. .
Some 850,000 Gabonese were called to the polls on Saturday to elect a President of the Republic, deputies and mayors through a one-round ballot.
Ali Bongo, 64, is seeking a third term. He was first elected in 2009 after the death of his father Omar Bongo Ondimba, who led the country for forty years.
Albert Ondo Ossa, 69, little known to the general public until then, was chosen by the main opposition parties gathered in the Alternance 2023 platform set up eight days before the ballot.
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