A candidate for the presidential election of April 12, Alain-Claude Bilie-by-Nze appeared before the press yesterday in Libreville to make a statement. The native of the Canton Ntang-Louli, in the province of Ogooué-Ivindo, appeared with an air reflecting a double expression. The reflection of his feelings at the end of this process which sees him finished second (3.02 % of the votes cast) behind Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, who was declared (largely) winner with 90.35 %.
First, he said he was disappointed to have lost the presidential election. Which is rightly understood, because we do not take part in a competition with the idea of losing it in advance. Unless you are a real political tourist. This is certainly not the case of Mr. Bilie-by-Nze who, the last Prime Minister of Ali Bongo Ondimba, knew full well where he was going.
“We therefore take note of these results with gravity and lucidity. The choice of continuity won over that of the rupture that we advocated and that I call for all my wishes for the country. This choice of continuity, I respect it even if it cannot take my support,” he said.
Not without mockery “a victory torn off in opaque and questionable conditions”. And to wonder about the sincerity of the votes cast attributed to each candidate. “The addition of these votes speaks of 95.18 %, or 4.82 % which would lack the clock. Thus introducing a legitimate doubt as to the sincerity of the figures put forward by the Ministry of the Interior. This missing mass is enough to discredit this election whose Soviet scores betray the ridiculous competition between zealous supports wanting to please their master,” he said.
Is it the reaction of a bad loser? It is up to everyone to appreciate. “Admittedly, I have not won this election. But the designated winner, he really won him regular? And the score attributed to me, is it sincere or does he notify on the contrary a strategy aimed at trying to freeze any possibility of rebounding?”, He wonders.
In a suspicious tone, he indicated that “April 12 was not a free election but an identical replica of the referendum masquerade. It was above all the staging of a power that wants to drag on the clothes of the rupture, when it is only the worst resurgence of the system that the military had announced annihilate on August 30, 2023”.
Considering himself as a “democrat in the soul”, Alain-Claude Bilie-by-Nze nevertheless greeted the climate of appeasement in which this presidential election took place. Even if, he said again, “equity was mistreated by the disproportion of the means between a candidate leading campaign to the taxpayer’s expense and the others having to settle for their personal resources”.
On this specific point, the electoral code seems to locate everyone, however. In its paragraph 4, article 180 states that “(…) However, the President of the Republic in office, candidate, retains the advantages linked to his function, in particular security, means of transport and the reception infrastructure belonging to the State, subject to the specific prescriptions of this law.”
