A group of senior Gabonese military officers have appeared on national television declaring they have seized power, claiming the recent general election lacks credibility and saying they represent all Gabon\u2019s security and defence forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They said the election results were cancelled, all borders closed until further notice and state institutions dissolved. Loud sounds of gunfire could be heard in the capital, Libreville, a Reuters reporter said, after the television appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was not immediately possible to reach the government for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the name of the Gabonese people … we have decided to defend the peace by putting an end to the current regime,\u201d the officers said on television.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gabon\u2019s incumbent president, Ali Bongo, won a third term in the presidential election with 64.27% of the vote, the Gabonese election centre said on Wednesday, after a delay-plagued general election that the opposition denounced as fraudulent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Announcing the result in the early hours, the elections head, Michel Stephane Bonda, said Bongo\u2019s main challenger, Albert Ondo Ossa, came second with 30.77%. Bongo\u2019s team rejected Ondo Ossa\u2019s allegations of electoral irregularities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tensions were running high amid fears of unrest after Saturday\u2019s presidential, parliamentary and legislative vote, which saw Bongo seeking to extend his family\u2019s 56-year grip on power while the opposition pushed for change in the oil and cocoa-rich but poverty-stricken nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A lack of international observers, the suspension of some foreign broadcasts, and the authorities\u2019 decision to cut internet service and impose a night-time curfew nationwide after the poll had raised concerns about the transparency of the electoral process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With Reuters<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A group of senior Gabonese military officers have appeared on national television declaring they have seized power, claiming the recent general election lacks credibility and saying they represent all Gabon\u2019s security and defence forces. They said the election results were cancelled, all borders closed until further notice and state institutions dissolved. Loud sounds of gunfire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":37312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[461,12],"tags":[10498,11264,11583,946,6731,11831,5262,539,911,5455,10497,2264,9947,10954,11062,5572,5441,5396,9431,3805,11377,1776,13301,5655,12778,12151,12664,6258],"class_list":["post-37311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-world-news","tag-ali-bongo","tag-allegations","tag-capital","tag-cocoa","tag-coup","tag-curfew","tag-cut","tag-delay","tag-election","tag-family","tag-gabon","tag-government","tag-gunfire","tag-international","tag-internet","tag-military","tag-oil","tag-peace","tag-poverty","tag-president","tag-presidential","tag-presidential-election","tag-results","tag-security","tag-seized","tag-suspension","tag-third-term","tag-transparency"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37313,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37311\/revisions\/37313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}