Gabon
Gabonese opposition gets Port-Gentil mayor

afrol News, 21 January - For the first time in Gabon, the opposition has achieved a significant position, taking control of the country economic capital Port-Gentil. The opposition's Séraphin Ndaot Rembogo was yesterday confirmed as Port-Gentil mayor, ending the controversies after the 29 December local elections. In Libreville, the capital, a ruling party member was to become the next mayor.

Shortly ahead of the municipal elections, it looked like incumbent Port-Gentil Mayor Pierre-Louis Agondjo Okawé of President Omar Bongo's Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) would emerge the only candidate. Several of the country's main opposition parties were calling for yet another boycott of the polls, recalling their experiences of election fraud at earlier occasions.

Due to new legislation, however, the PDG candidate was barred from re-election. An act passed in December banned members of government, senators and other senior officials from also holding municipal positions and Mr Okawé had to withdraw from the race in Port-Gentil. Top candidates for the town hall were thus Mr Rembogo of the opposition Gabonese Progress Party (PGP) and an independent candidate. The town council yesterday elected Mr Rembogo, counting 47 of the 64 votes, according to information gathered by the news agency AFP.

Port-Gentil is the economic capital of Gabon, where most of the offshore oil exploitation - the country's main revenue source - is run from. Located on an island in the Ogooué River estuary, its estimated population of 150,000 also are key players in Gabon's other export industries and fisheries. 

The 29 December municipal elections had been marred by low turnout as most Gabonese opposition parties had called for a boycott. The PGP has claimed that also these elections generally had been fraudulent. Similar allegations have been made during the December 2001 legislative elections and earlier presidential elections, always won by President Bongo's PDG party. The election's turnout is still to be made public.

Despite allegations of electoral fraud, it was officially announced on Sunday that the ruling party had won the elections in Libreville, the capital. Mayor Paul Mba Abessole of the PDG had been re-elected, according to officials. 

President Bongo, who has ruled the country since 1967, only allowed the establishment of opposition parties in 1993. Although opposition candidates have since then participated in all polls, it is widely held that the government has manipulated the election results to assure continued PDG and Bongo power. Violent clashes have so far been mostly avoided, except in the aftermath of the 1993 presidential poll.

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