By Liu Fang
YAOUNDE, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- One week after Gabon officially published the Aug. 30 presidential election results, which are being contested by the opposition, president-elect Ali Bongo arrived in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde on Friday for a visit to seek support to stabilize his country.
Many observers believe his face-to-face meeting with Cameroonian President Paul Biya was not only meant for friendship between the two neighboring countries, but political solidarity inwhich Yaounde bolsters the eldest son of the late Gabonese president Omar Bongo Ondimba, who died on June 8 in Barcelona, Spain, after having been in power for nearly 42 years.
"President Biya was among the first foreign heads of state to congratulate Ali Bongo. It seems to me that Ali Bongo has come to thank him for his support in the Gabon election and to ask him to assist by bringing together all the different factions that are dissatisfied, so that he could successfully come out of the crisis," Prof. Joseph Vincent Ntuda Ebode told Xinhua.
Ali Bongo, 50, was declared the winner of the race with 41.73 percent of vote by the electoral commission. The outcome was confirmed by the Constitutional Court afterwards.
His challengers include former interior minister Andre Mba Obame who won 25.88 percent of vote and opposition leader Pierre Mamboundou who scored 25.22 percent. They both denounced the published results, comparing Ali Bongo's victory to "a constitutional coup d'etat."
The results provoked a wave of violence in the Gabonese capital Libreville and the second largest city Port-Gentil, leaving three people dead, according to the official sources.
The opposition, however, insists that at least 15 protests were killed by the security forces.
A coalition of losing candidates led by ex-prime minister Jean Eyeghe Ndong reiterated on Monday their rejection of the results, while calling for a recount of votes because of "great manipulations of the results," stuffing of ballot boxes and incomprehensible interference with the voters registration which tilted the outcome in favor of Ali Bongo.
Despite the accusation by the opposition in Gabon, Cameroon's head of state send a congratulatory message to the new leadership in the south neighbor on the same day.
"Cameroon is currently considered to have the most senior head of state in the zone of CEMAC (the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa States). It is evident that in the exercise of his new functions, Ali Bongo came to seek advice from president Biya," said Ntuda, the head of the Center for Political Studies and Strategic Research at the University of Yaounde.
The same opinion was shared by Dr.Mathias Eric Owona Nguini, political scientist who also teaches in the university.
"President Biya is going to use his experience of the long time he has been in power to convince some political actors in Gabon to negotiate so that they can calm and pacify their country," he told Xinhua.
He recalled a role played by Cameroon in the past in mediating between the members of Bongo's clan before his death, notably between Ali Bongo, the former minister for defense and his sister Pascaline, the ex-cabinet director, whose husband was the foreign minister.
The same Biya asked Casimir Oye Mba, the former baron of the Omar Bongo regime, to pull out of the elections in favor of Ali Bongo.
The head of state of Cameroon was at the Yaounde-Nsimalen International airport with officials of his government where he received and accompanied Ali Bongo.
They held a tete-a-tete at the State House, but no information about their discussions was divulged to the media.
"President Biya has always honored me and he considers me as his son. He was a brother to my father," Ali Bongo told a Cameroonian public radio CRTV on his arrival in the afternoon in Yaounde.
He affirmed that he had reserved his first visit to his "father" so that "he can give me his advice." He claimed himself as "one of the presidents who are much respected on the continent."
Insiders, however, disclosed that Biya and Ali Bongo touched on the formation of a future government in Gabon.
"We are waiting for a date to be set by the Constitutional Court (for the inauguration). We are going to form the government and get back to work," Ali Bongo said.
According to Ntuda Ebode, negotiations need to be held before the forming of a government of national unity. The talks could help reconcile the people of Gabon.
He observed that Biya will also weigh in, as he did during the elections "to help avoid any sociopolitical instability which could also affect Cameroon."
The Gabonese ambassador to Cameroon, Michel Madoungou, who was interviewed by Xinhua, said the visit by the president elect, Ali Bongo to Cameroon, was "a campaign promise."
"President Ali Bongo made a promise during his election campaigns that he will reserve his first foreign visit for Cameroon," the diplomat affirmed. "In any case, in his capacity as the head of state, president Paul Biya is a father to Ali Bongo."
Courtesy:WWW.XINHUANET.COM
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