In Gabon, the opposition is continuing its negotiations to find a single presidential candidate. Time is running out as general elections take place on August 26 and President Ali Bongo is a candidate for his own succession. The talks are therefore intense within Alternance 2023, the platform created in January to build a union of the opposition in view of the ballot.
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Six candidates are in the running within Alternance 2023. Only one must be chosen. According to a good source, a deadline has been set: it may be August 11, the official start of the campaign. Nevertheless, the platform’s president, François Ndong Obiang, is worried. Civil society organizations, for their part, want to announce soon a single candidate. ” This is a dangerous maneuver that risks disturbing the spirits “, he says.
In the meantime, negotiations are progressing. Regarding the legislative elections, agreements have been reached for single lists in each constituency, avoiding competition. For locals, there too, there is consensus around one or more lists depending on the locality.
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For the presidential election, according to François Ndong Obiang, the dialogue is more peaceful, in particular since the departure this week of the former vice-president, Pierre Claver Maganga Moussavou. ” We need debates, that each exposes its program to the militants. But Alternance 2023 refused and was not interested in what people think “, indicates the leader of the PSD party.
François Ndong Obiang, he suspects an agreement with the power for the opponent to disrupt the coalition, in exchange for a position. He also evokes a stormy meeting, at the beginning of July, with invectives and personal attacks from Maganga Moussavou. ” He was then absent four times, without justification. It was therefore excluded “, he explains. The leader of the PSD denies: These are bad languages. I don’t let myself be bought, unlike some people. »
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