Thousands of people are resuming outside the electoral colleges in Libreville, the coastal capital, to launch their vote.
Voters in Gabon are casting their vote in the presidential elections, since the military leader, Brice Oligui Nguema, seeks to consolidate his control over power in the first elections since he directed the 2023 coup d’etat.
The surveys were opened in the country at 7 am (06:00 GMT) on Saturday, with reports of thousands of people queuing outside the electoral plants in Libreville, the coastal capital. The vote will be a hero in the nine provinces of the country until 6 pm local time (17:00 GMT). The results are expected to be announced within two weeks of the vote.
Almost a million people, including some, 000 abroad, are registered to vote in this African nation rich in oil but poor or 2.3 million people.
Ali Hashem from Al Jazeera, informing from Libreville, said voters hope to cast their tickets, but are “trapped between hope and fear.”
Nguema, who had been fundamental to finish 55 years of dynastic government of the Bongo family led by former leader Ali Bongo, has led in opinion surveys. The members of the Bongo family were accused or looting Gabon’s wealth.
Aurele Ossantanga Mouila, 30, voted for the first time after finishing his turn as a crupier in a casino.
“I had no confidence in the previous regime,” he said.
Nguema assumed the role of transition president while supervising the formation of a government that includes civilians, responsible for preparing a new Constitution after the 2023 coup d’etat.
The country is aimed at surveys in a moment of high regular shortage of energy and water, lack of infrastructure and a large government debt.
Nguema launched his military uniform while campaigning for a seven-year period against seven rivals, including Alain-Claude Bilie de Nze, who served as Prime Minister under Ali Bongo before the coup d’etat.
I have predicted a “historical victory” in the elections.
“The builder is here, the special candidate, the one who called,” Nguema said Thursday between music and dancing in his closing rally in the capital, Librobeville.
But the critics of the Nguema battery, who had promised to return the energy to the civilians, or not to pass the year of the loot of the country’s fixed mineral wealth under the bongos, under which it served for years.
Nze Bilie, Nguema’s main opponent, has presented himself as the candidate for a “complete break.”
“Actually, it is a choice of total change. It is a challenge and we are at a crossroads,” Al Jazeera told.
Nguema has been accused, who directed the Republican Guard in Bongo years, or that represents an old system continuity.
Nguema served as former camp assistant for Omar Bongo before becoming head of the presidential guard under his son Ali Bongo.
Whoever wins will have to comply with the great hopes of a country where one in three people lives below the poverty line despite their wealth of fixed resources, according to the World Bank.
Gabon’s debt increased to 73.3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) last year and is projected to reach 80 percent this year.