The vote count from the presidential elections that held in Gabon on Saturday, August 27, 2016 is already favouring the incumbent President Ali Bongo.  Given the results compiled by the national electoral commission, the outgoing president and his allies are leading in 6 of the 9 provinces and Bongo has already scored just over 54% of the vote.

Jean Ping is expected to come second with just over 33% and René Ndong Sima third with less than 5%. The national electoral commission aka Cenap, has 72 hours maximum to make public the results before they are forwarded to the Constitutional Court for validation.

Our informant in Libreville, Gabon hinted at the time of filing this report that the final results could be out late today.  Some 628,124 Gabonese voters reportedly participated in the process and voted in 2580 polling stations throughout the national territory.

10 candidates competed for the presidency in one round, watched by more than 1,000 national and international observers, which took place peacefully and without major incident.

By Chi Prudence Asong