Gabon president warns of election unrest

Gabon president Ali Bongo Ondimba has warned of possible unrest during the August 27 election.

“It is to be feared, because it is the opposition’s strategy for many years,” Bongo said in an interview with the weekly “Jeune Afrique”.

According to him, the opposition has started by announcing that the election will not be transparent.

Country’s constitutional court had last week rejected appeals lodged by three opponents against his candidacy.

The opposition had maintained Bongo was ineligible to participate in the elections and claimed he was adopted from Nigeria in the 1960s by his father and long-ruling former president Omar Bongo Ondimba.

Bongo was elected for the first term in a disputed 2009 election following the death of his father, who ruled the Central African country and was described by critics as a despot leader.

Representatives of EU election observation last Thursday called on politicians to do everything to avoid any form of violence and tension ahead of the presidential polls.