#Gabon: Much-needed victory is already hurting Ali Ben Bongo’s power

Gabon’s Parliamentary Elections, December 17, 2011

The much-needed victory is already hurting Ali Ben Bongo’s power

By trying to win too much, you end up losing everything. Yes! This may be happening to Ali Ben Bongo. The results of the sham election held December 17, 2011 are clear: an abstention rate of over 90%, a record of "tropical democracies" beaten, but also a score of over 115 members of the PDG (party in power) of the 120 MPs in the National Assembly. That’s already irritating the Western supporters of the “system” in place in Libreville.

According to our sources, after the announcement of the first results, Ali Ben’s phone has not stopped ringing. All his interlocutors, as one man, blame the tenant of the marble palace of going too far and it provides, therefore, evidence that whatever the opposition says is true.

Sunday morning already, Ali Ben held talks with members of the Constitutional Court. One brave man, nonetheless, made a remark and suggested to ask all the rallied “opponents” (who accepted to participate) to bring actions for annulment in order to rebalance things, a little bit. Order has been given to Faustin Boukoubi (of PDG in power and big winner) to gather his staff and see who can lose to make room for new allies. Naturally, the meeting was stormy. We even came close to fisticuffs (fistfights) at times.

What does one finally chosen? The process of "rebalancing" will be in two phases. First at the Electoral commission (CENAP) level. Instructions were given to the presidents of local election commissions to review the minutes to save the very specific “heads”. This work has already begun. Where nothing else can be done, unsuccessful applicants will be asked to write an action for annulment. A draft pitch will be provided to each other and documents will be made to achieve those actions.

Has the power anticipated the reaction of the "sacrificed"? Nothing is less certain. One must not forget the famous song of Hilarion Nguema: "When a woman gets angry." And it might hurt. The evidence, the secret has already reached us.

Francois Ondo Edou