Gabon: Opposition Continues to Fight Election Result · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

The death of Omar Bongo, one of Africa's longest-serving dictators, in June inspired hope that Gabon might embark on a new kind of politics.  Yet when Bongo's son, Ali Ben Bongo, the ruling party's candidate, was declared the victor of the August 31st election, few were surprised.  As one francophone blogger, Le petit Quimonte illustre, explains:
Au Gabon, la Couronne est héréditaire, de mâle en mâle par ordre de primogéniture élue démocratiquement par succession directe au suffrage universel sous protection militaire.
In Gabon, the Crown is hereditary, passed from male to male by order of primogeniture, democratically elected by direct succession via universal suffrage, under the protection of the military.
And yet members of the opposition are refusing to go home quietly.
Last week, Gabon's opposition parties called for a 3-day national strike, in protest of last month's election, and to express solidarity with victims of the post-election violence in Port Gentil (although by most international news accounts, few if any in Libreville took up the call).  Gabon Libre Expression (via Afrik.com) reports that some opposition candidates are offering their own, alternative vote count which places UPG candidate Pierre Mamboundou ahead of Bongo, with more than 68% of the vote.
On Thursday, opposition candidates issued a joint statement and least nine have filed claims in the Gabonese Constitutional Court calling for the nullification of the August 31st vote, which ex-candidate Bruno Ben Moubamba calls “an electoral coup d'etat,” on account of alleged voter fraud and other irregularities.  The court has one month to rule on the allegations, but as a recent article on Afrik.com points out, with the court's close ties to the Bongo family, the opposition entertains little hope of a favorable outcome.
Long Live la Françafrique!
France, long cozy with the Bongo family, was deemed at least partly to blame.  Protesters in Port-Gentil targeted facilities owned by Total, the French oil company, in post-election violence that left at least three dead.
A protest against the election in Paris is planned for this Wednesday and, at least on one Gabonese news website, there are calls to boycott French products.
Pour Un Gabon Meilleur! explains the history of French companies in Gabon, and their close connectino to the Bongo family:
Elf, rebaptisé aujourd’hui Total, est la plus connue des entreprises françaises qui exploite les richesses du Gabon du fait de l’affaire qui à partir de 1994 et jusqu’au procès de 2004 a donné un coup de projecteur sur les liens entre les dirigeants de la société pétrolière, la famille Bongo, la mafia et les sommets de l’appareil d’État français.
Mais en fait, c’est l’ensemble de l’économie du pays qui est sous la coupe de sociétés françaises et il est difficile de toutes les citer. Le clan Bongo est servi au passage, étalant un luxe provoquant au milieu du dénuement. Mais l’essentiel de la richesse produite par les travailleurs du pétrole, des mines, de l’extraction forestière, du transport et des activités portuaires, etc., profite à des patrons et des actionnaires d’entreprises dont le siège est par exemple à Odet dans le Finistère (Bolloré), à la Tour Montparnasse à Paris (Eramet), à La Défense (Areva) ou à Niort (Rougier, pour l’exploitation et le négoce des bois tropicaux).
Elf, today named Total, is the most well-known of all the French companies that exploit Gabon's riches because of the controversy that from 1994 until 2004 put a spotlight on the links between the leadership of the oil company, the Bongo family, the mafia, and the heights of France's state apparatus.
But in fact, the whole of the country's economy is under the thumb of French companies, and it is difficult to name them all.  The Bongo clan has served as the , flaunting a provocative luxury in a place of extreme poverty.  But most of the riches produced by the [Gabonese] oil, mining, timber, transport  and port workers benefit the owners and shareholders of companies whose head offices are, for example, in places like Odet (Bolloré), the Tour Montparnasse in Paris (Eramet), La Defense (Areva) or Niort (Rougier, for the exploitation and trade of tropical wood).
Alliance Nationale de la Resistance du Tchad, presents a time line of France's supposed involvement in the election, which culminates in a now-infamous quote Robert Bourgi gave to Le Monde on the even of the election: “In Gabon, France is not a candidate, but the candidate of  Robert Bourgit is Ali Bongo.  Now, I am a friend Nicholas Sarkozy listens to.  Subliminally, the voter will understand” [Fr].
Readers of La Voix Du Peuple Gabonais  discuss the feasibility of a boycott of French products.  Ondonza writes:
je suis entièrement d'accord avec le boycotte, c'est une mesure de pression efficace qui peut amener les francais à revoir leur position, dans la mesure où le chiffre d'affaires de leurs sociétés diminuera à long terme, ils seront obligés de fermer et rentrer chez eux. Pour cela aussi bien les hommes d'affaires, étudiants, touristes et autres ne devraient plus prendre Air france ou Gabon airlines, une alternative sera de prendre la Lufthansa, Ethiopia airlines et autres compagnies. Les automobilistes ne devraient plus consommer le carburant de Total, ni de la Lybian oil. Penser consommer Gabonais maintenant cela fera rehausser le pouvoir d'achat des petits commercants gabonais.
Que Dieu benisse le Gabon
I completely agree with this boycott: it's an effective pressure device that can make the French reconsider their position…businessmen, students, tourists and others should no longer fly Air France or Gabon Airlines, but take Lufthansa, Ethiopia or other company as an alternative.  Drivers shouldn't consume Total oil, nor Lybian oil.  Thinking of buying Gabonese now will raise the purchasing power of small Gabonese traders.
May God bless Gabon
Aligatoire wonders how a boycott could possibly work, given Gabon's extreme dependence on its former colonizer:
Boycotter les produits français, je me demande comment? notre économie ne produit rien. Cela suppose boycotter tout les groupes CFAO, CECADIS,TOTAL,SMAG,BNP(bicig) bgfi,crédit lyonnais (ugb), SEEG, LIBERTIS(les bongo). DRAGAGE……commençons donc par créer une banque gabonaise et des entreprises gabonaises. Il faut donc commencer à être décomplexé de l'homme blanc. car bcp d'africains souffrent d'un complexe d'inferiorité face l'homme occidental.Cette lutte doit être d'abord psychlogique et culturelle.Tous nos dirigeants sont à la merci des occidentaux au détriment de leur peuple. Nous sommes dans les mêmes configurations lors de la traite négrière, le chef coutumier et le négrier.
Boycott French products?  How?  Our economy produces nothing.  That would mean boycotting CFAO, CECADIS,TOTAL,SMAG,BNP(bicig), bgfi,crédit lyonnais (ugb), SEEG, LIBERTIS(les bongo), all the companies……let's start by creating a Gabonese bank and Gabonese enterprises.  We have to start by getting over our hang-ups, because Africans suffer from an inferiority complex vis-a-vis the Western man.  This fight must be, in the first instance, psychological and cultural.  Our leaders are at the mercy of the West, to the detriment of their people.  We are in the same place as we were during the slave trade, the customary chief and the slave trader.
Alphonse Obiang, in a comment on Alliance Nationale de la Resistance du Tchad, turns the responsibility back on Gabonese politicians:
Cet article est du grand n'importe quoi!…je ne vois pas ce que paris vient faire là, sauf si vous prétendez que c'est paris qui a contraint les anti-bongo à diviser leurs voix par 22. le résultat est clair: prise en semble, l'opposition dépasse largement les 50%. divisée, ali bongo passe haut la maion. Tout le reste n'est qu'explications facile et foutage dd gueule.
This article is full of it…I can't see what Paris has done, unless you claim that it was Paris that forced those against Bongo to divide their voices by 22.  The result is clear: taken together, the opposition got far more than 50%.  Divided, Ali Bongo won easily.  Everything else are simple explanations and BS.