Voters trickled to a polls in Gabon Saturday in legislative elections approaching to palm a thumping feat to President Ali Bongo's celebration in a face of a criticism by some antithesis groups.
Bongo's Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) and a allies reason 98 of a 120 seats in council in a west African oil state and are not approaching to remove most belligerent given a splintered opposition.
Polling stations sealed during 1700 GMT, nonetheless some close progressing given of a low audience and a miss of electricity as dark fell.
Results are approaching Thursday.
For a initial legislative check given his father Omar died in 2009 after 41 years in power, Bongo, 52, has campaigned on his mercantile achievements and a co-hosting of a 2012 Africa Cup of Nations with Equatorial Guinea, an eventuality that has spurred vital investment.
"It's a citizen's avocation to go and vote, though it's loyal it's not really crowded," pronounced voter Antoinette Ntsame-Sima during a polling hire in northern Medouneu, a building of heading antithesis figure Andre Mba Obame.
Many eyes were on Medouneu, where Mba Obame won 96 percent of a opinion in a 2009 presidential choosing that brought Bongo to power, to see either electorate would observe a boycott.
PDG claimant Maxime Ondimba is confronting off opposite Claude-Guy Assey of a Rally for Gabon -- partial of a presidential infancy ancillary Bongo -- for a chair vacated by Mba Obame, who is ill and undergoing medical diagnosis in France.
Mba Obame's supporters went out in tiny groups in Medouneu to titillate people not to vote, call an outburst from a town's mayor Pauline Ossone of a PDG.
"They are perplexing to shock people so that they won't vote. Even small aged ladies! It's unacceptable," Ossone charged.
But Delphine Alene-Ondo, a late secretary, was defiant: "I'm not afraid. we am during home, I'm Gabonese, I'm voting for Ondimba... (Mba Obame's supporters) are rubbish."
Reached by write in Paris, Mba Obame said: "Today they will contend that they took Andre Mba Obame's seat. It's loyal they will have a deputy, though they haven't taken my seat. They don't paint anyone."
Assey pronounced he hoped to advantage from a boycott. "Not all of Mba Obame's supporters will observe a boycott. They know that a one who is best placed to urge their intrests is Claude-Guy Assey. we will be elected."
A sum of 746,000 people are purebred to opinion in a nation of 1.5 million inhabitants, sub-Saharan Africa's fourth largest oil producer.
Despite a new presentation of a center class, disparities are huge, with some-more than half of a race vital on reduction than dual dollars a day.
Inspired by a Arab Spring and a fibre of criticism movements opposite long-standing rulers in sub-Saharan Africa, Gabon's antithesis primarily looked like ascent a critical challenge, though it was separate over a criticism issue.
Mba Obame's supporters assimilated army with 12 other antithesis parties in Nov to reject a elections over a deficiency of biometric polling materials.
A series of statute celebration dissidents assimilated antithesis ranks in new years in a bid to pull for some-more democracy, though a PDG aged ensure that once stable Omar Bongo's standing as Africa's longest-serving personality appears to have won a day.
"The PDG runs Gabon. We have to opinion for Ondimba given if we opinion for him, a boss (Bongo) will trust us and we'll have schools, roads and everything," pronounced Nestor Aboghe, a PDG supporter.
News referensi http://news.yahoo.com/gabon-ruling-party-set-comfortable-reelection-052231969.html
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10:13 AM Saturday, December 17, 2011