Gabon votes in the first presidential elections since the 2023 coup | Politics News

The military leader, Price Oligoy Nujima, is looking to strengthen his grip on power in the national vote.

Voters In Gabon, she made their votes in the presidential elections, as military leader Price Oligoy Ngwima is looking to strengthen his grip on power in the first elections since he led the 2023 coup.

Opinion polls were closed at 6 pm (17:00 GMT) on Saturday and the count was ongoing, with temporary results expected overnight or Sunday.

Nearly one million people, including about 28,000 people abroad, are recorded to vote in this oil -rich African nation but poor of 2.3 million people.

Ali Hashem of Al -Jazeera, who was reported to Libeville, said that many voters were “stuck between hope and fear.”

Nujima, who had an effective role in ending the 55 -year -old family’s iron rule for the Bongo family led by former leader Ali Bongo, in opinion polls. Pongo family members were accused of looting Gabon’s fortune.

Aurele Ossantanga Mouila, 30, for the first time ever after his epidemic was completed as a leader in a casino.

“I had no confidence in the previous regime,” he said.

NGUEMA assumed the role of the transitional president while overseeing the formation of a government that includes civilians, charged with setting a new constitution after the 2023 coup.

The elections come at a time through high unemployment, energy shortages and regular water, and the lack of infrastructure and heavy government debt.

Nujima got rid of his military uniform, carrying a seven-year term against seven competitors, including Alain-Claud actually Before the coup.

He expected a “historic victory” in the elections.

“The builder here, the special candidate, the person I called,” said Nujima, amid music and dance in his closing gathering in the capital, Laberville, Nujima said on Thursday, amid music and dance in his closing gathering in the capital, Libeville.

But critics accuse Nguima, who promised the authority of civilians, and their failure to move from the years of looting of the country’s widespread mineral wealth under Bongos, who has served for years.

Billy of NZE, the main NGUEMA opponent, threw himself as a candidate for “full rupture”.

“In fact, it is an election for complete change. It is a challenge and we are at a crossroads,” he said to Al -Jazeera.

Najma, who led the Republican goalkeeper in Bongo’s years, was accused of representing the continuity of the old regime.

Nujima previously worked as Dubai Assistant to Omar Bongo before he became the head of the Presidential Guard under the leadership of his son Ali Bongo.

Anyone who wins will have to face high hopes for a country in which one in three people live below the poverty line despite his wide wealth for resources, according to the World Bank.

Gabon debt rose to 73.3 percent of the total local products (GDP) last year, and is expected to reach 80 percent this year.