MASSAHA (north-east), August 25, 2023 (AGP) – Voting operations for the general elections began this Saturday timidly and calmly in many voting centers in the province of Ogooue-Ivindo.
According to various sources contacted by the AGP, many polling stations opened late, due to the delay observed in the delivery of electoral material.
In Mekambo, capital of the department of Zadié, women’s demonstrations on Friday did not allow ballot boxes and polling station officials to be at their posts in time.
“Everything is going smoothly. There were start-up delays and some candidate ballots were missing from the polling stations. But this was quickly resolved,” said a representative of the Gabonese Election Center (CGE), organizer of these elections.
At the Massaha village grouping, about 56 km from Makokou, voting operations began at 9:25 a.m. local time and the candidate for deputy of the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG, in power) at the first seat of the Ivindo department, Jean de Dieu Ikouakangoye was the first to fulfill his civic duty.
Saturday mid-afternoon, no major incident was reported by the organizers.
For the parliamentary candidate of the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP, majority) in the first arrondissement of Ivindo, Jean Jacques Ndjamendoungou, who toured the headquarters on the day of the vote, noted “serious shortcomings by relation to the organization of the elections”. “There are dysfunctions that I have just noticed. There is one president for two polling stations. Which is inadmissible,” he noted.
With regard to the administrative organization of these elections, the RDP candidate, who says he has fulfilled all the obligations with a view to obtaining the electoral franc, in particular by investing more than 14 candidates throughout the territory, says to himself “really disappointed with the organization of these elections”.
The end of voting operations is scheduled for 6 p.m.
NMM/FSS
