2016 Gabonese Presidential Election Saurday Aug 27,2016

The 2016 Gabonese Presidential Election is scheduled to be held on Saurday Aug 27,2016

The President of Gabon is elected for a seven-year term in a single round of voting by plurality, whichever candidate places first is deemed elected, regardless of whether the candidate secured a majority of votes. This system is thought to be a disadvantage to the fractious opposition, which would appear to have little chance of winning unless it united behind a single candidate

The election takes place in a climate of persistent social unrest driven in large part by the economic impact of the slump in the price of oil, which has long dominated Gabon's economy.

Despite boasting one of Africa's highest per capita incomes at $8,300, a third of Gabon's population live in poverty. Unemployment among the young, according to the World Bank, runs at 35 %

Some 628,000 of Gabon's 1.8 million inhabitants are eligible to take part in the election, whose winner will be decided by a simple majority after a single round of voting

The people of Gabon vote Saturday to decide whether President Ali Bongo will remain in office or be unseated by a career diplomat and close associate of his late father, who ran the country for 41 years

Incumbent President Ali Bongo(57)and ex-African Union Commission chief Jean Ping(73)who both worked under Omar Bongo until he died in 2009, are seen as the only credible candidates among a field of 10

Until recently, Incumbent President Ali  Bongo was far and away the favourite, largely because several prominent politicians had declared themselves as candidates, thereby dividing the opposition.

But protracted negotiations led all the key challengers to pull out and put their weight behind Jean Ping, with the last of them withdrawing only last week

The campaign period has been acrimonious, marked by months of bitter exchanges between the two main camps, including accusations, and strenuous denials, that Bongo was born in Nigeria and therefore ineligible to run.

On Friday Aug 26,2016, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on "all political stakeholders, in particular the candidates, to exercise restraint, abstain from any acts of incitement or the use of inflammatory statements, and maintain a peaceful atmosphere before, during and after the election."
He also urged the candidates to use "legal and constitutional channels" in the event of any dispute over the result.


On Friday, each side accused the other of trying to gain an illicit advantage by buying up voter cards in various parts of the country for sums ranging from $20 to $100.

Faced with repeated charges of nepotism, Bongo has long insisted he owes his presidency to merit and his years of government service.