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Gabon Votes In First Presidential Election Since The 2023 Coup

Military leader Brice Oligui Nguema looks to cement his grip on power in national vote. Voters in Gabon have cast their ballots in the presidential election, as military leader Brice Oligui Nguema looks to cement his grip on power in the first election since he led the 2023 coup. Polls closed at 6pm (17:00 GMT) on Saturday and counting was under way, with interim results expected overnight or on Sunday. Nearly one million people, including some 28,000 overseas, are registered to vote in this oil-rich but poor African nation of 2.3 million people. Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, reporting from Libreville, said that many voters were “stuck between hope and fear”. Nguema, who had been instrumental in ending 55 years of iron-fisted dynastic rule of the Bongo family led by former leader Ali Bongo, has been leading in opinion polls. Bongo family members were accused of looting Gabon’s wealth. Aurele Ossantanga Mouila, 30, voted for the first time ever after finishing his shift as a croupier in a casino. “I did not have confidence in the earlier regime,” he said. Nguema took the role of transitional president while overseeing the formation of a government that includes civilians, tasked with drawing up a new constitution after the 2023 coup. The election comes at a time of high unemployment, regular power and water shortages, a lack of infrastructure and heavy government debt. Nguema ditched his military uniform as he campaigned for a seven-year term against seven rivals, including Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze, who served as prime minister under Ali Bongo before the coup. He has predicted an “historic victory” in the election. “The builder is here, the special candidate, the one you called,” Nguema said on Thursday, amid the music and dancing at his closing rally in the capital, Libreville. But critics accuse Nguema, who had promised to hand power back to civilians, of failing to move on from the years of plunder of the country’s vast mineral wealth under the Bongos, under whom he served for years. Bilie By Nze, Nguema’s main opponent, has cast himself as the candidate for a “complete rupture”. “In reality, it’s an election of total change. It’s a challenge and we are at a crossroads,” he told Al Jazeera. He has accused Nguema, who led the Republican Guard in the Bongo years, of representing a continuity of the old system. Nguema formerly served as an aide-de-camp to Omar Bongo before becoming chief of the presidential guard under his son Ali Bongo. Whoever wins will have to meet the high hopes of a country where one in three people lives below the poverty line despite its vast resource wealth, according to the World Bank. Gabon’s debt rose to 73.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) last year and is projected to reach 80 percent this year. Follow Al Jazeera English:...

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Nigerian Army Pleads With Akwa-Ibom Youths To Join The Military

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UK Steps In To Save British Steel As Nationalisation Looms

Intervention follows a breakdown in talks between the UK government and British Steel’s Chinese owner, Jingye Group. The UK government has taken effective control of British Steel in order to keep its blast furnaces running, after lawmakers approved an emergency rescue. With 3,500 jobs hanging in the balance, British ministers rushed to push through legislation on Saturday to allow the state to temporarily assume operational control. The intervention follows a breakdown in talks between the UK government and British Steel’s Chinese owner, Jingye Group, over plans to transition the firm to greener production methods. After the vote, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer travelled to the site, warning that the blast furnaces – losing $915,600 (700,000 pounds) a day – were on the brink of closure. “You and your colleagues for years have been the backbone of British Steel, and it’s really important that we recognize that,” Starmer said. “It’s your jobs, your lives, your communities, your families.” Lawmakers had been recalled from their Easter recess for the emergency Saturday sitting. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told MPs that the new law would give the government power to manage operations, ensure workers are paid, and secure vital raw materials to keep the furnaces going. Reynolds said a full state takeover was “increasingly likely” given the conduct of the firm’s current owners. “A failure to act today would prevent any more desirable outcome from even being considered,” he said. The bill passed the House of Commons unopposed. If nationalised, British Steel would become the UK’s largest state rescue since the 2008 banking crisis. The collapse of its Scunthorpe operations would leave the UK as the only G7 nation unable to produce virgin steel – made directly from raw materials like iron ore and coke. Already under pressure from a global supply glut and soaring energy prices, the company was further hit by new US tariffs of 25 percent, affecting 5 percent of its annual steel exports worth approximately $520m. Reynolds stressed that reliance on foreign steel would grow if the furnaces shutdown, and pledged to fight for their future while also pushing to lift US trade restrictions. The government has already pledged $3.2bn to support the steel sector and aims to unveil a long-term strategy in the coming months. Follow Al Jazeera English:...