Posted on 19.07.2023 at 13:05 by Linda Manga
President Michel Bonda of the Gabonese Elections Center announced during a press conference the abolition of the ballot authentication phase during the elections to be held on August 26, 2023.
The objective according to the Gabonese Elections Center is to reduce the voting time in order to respect the scheduled polling time of 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on August 26. “To save material time and to prevent, on the one hand, the dissatisfaction of voters arising from this ballot authentication operation, and on the other hand, any manipulations likely to lead to the cancellation of the vote voters, we recommended the abolition of this operation which considerably slows down the rapid access of voters to the polling station”affirmed Michel Stéphane Bonda, president of the CGE during a press conference on July 17 in Libreville.
The aim will also be to reduce the abstention rates recorded during the elections. Because it is “one of the sources of voter exasperation, the consequence of which is materialized by a high rate of abstention observed during political elections as well as the late start of electoral operations”, he said. However, this measure goes against the electoral code because, article 79 paragraph 6 of the electoral code requires that the ballot papers given to each voter be signed, at the top, by the president and at the bottom, by the two assessors of the polling station.
Note that since this month of July many changes to the electoral code have been made. These changes are contested by the opposition. The opposition also seized the Constitutional Court on July 18 for the cancellation of the changes to the electoral code in Gabon.
