Gabon Opposition Seeks to Unseat Incumbent Bongo Amid New Rule

Former Gabon education minister Albert Ondo Ossa has been backed by five main opposition parties under the "Alternance 2023” banner, in a bid to unseat President Ali Bongo — whose family has ruled the oil-rich Central African state for 55 years. After Gabon’s electoral commission announced a new rule saying any vote for a local deputy would automatically be a vote for that deputy's presidential candidate, the opposition urged a boycott of the parliamentary elections — calling instead for people "to vote only for the president" and to "throw the legislative ballot sheets in the trash." Gabonese voters head to the polls Aug. 26. David Monda, a professor of political science at City University of New York, discussed with VOA's Mohamed Elshinnawi election scenarios and whether Ondo Ossa stands a fair chance of winning the presidency.