BONGO’S RULE TESTED IN GABON VOTE

LIBREVILLE: The people of Gabon began casting their ballots yesterday in a vote 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.

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.

Mr 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, Mr 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 Mr Ping, with the last of them withdrawing only last week.

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

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 10,000 to 50,000 francs (600-3,000 baht).

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

His extravagant campaign was based around the slogan “Let’s change together”, playing up the roads and hospitals built during his first term.

Mr Ping has pledged to ensure, if elected, that Gabon would be “sheltered from need and fear,” dismissing the president’s muchtouted moves to diversify the economy into rubber and palm oil as mere window dressing.