Marco Longari, AFP | A giant poster of Gabonese incumbent President Ali Bongo looms in the background as supporters of opposition candidate Jean Ping rally in Libreville on August 26, 2016.

Gabon voted in a presidential election on Saturday with incumbent Ali Bongo looking to extend his family's rule past the 50-year mark.

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Bongo, 57, has long sought to emerge from the shadow of his father, Omar Bongo, who ruled the central African country of 1.8 million people for 41 years until he died in 2009.

With state machinery and entrenched patronage networks behind him, Bongo is likely to secure a second term in office. But an 11th-hour pact between feuding opposition leaders has given the race a measure of suspense.

The most formidable challenge among nine opponents comes from Jean Ping, a former chair of the African Union Commission who managed to get several other high-profile opposition figures to support his candidacy after months of wrangling.

"The day of glory has arrived and we are preparing as you can see to celebrate victory," Ping, 73, said shortly after voting in Martine Oulabou school, in the capital Libreville.

Gabon's Bongo bids to extend rule faces, with challenge from Ping

Ping faces an uphill struggle, not least because Gabon's one-round system means the winner doesn't need a majority, just more votes than any other candidate.

In 2009, Bongo won with 41.73 percent.

"I have laid out the change achieved and the change to come in the future. For that reason, I'm confident," Bongo, wearing a blue suit, said after casting his ballot.

Voting was mostly calm on Saturday, barring reports of scuffles in one area as tempers flared in long queues to cast ballots.

Results are not expected until early next week, although partial results may start trickling out on Sunday.

'Gathering of witches'

The campaign period has been tense, with Bongo accusing the opposition of inciting violence by claiming he plans to steal the vote.

He has described Ping's opposition coalition as "a gathering of witches" who "want to bring back the old system, the system of privileges". Ping and several of his top allies served in high-level positions under Omar Bongo.

Ping, meanwhile, has said an Ali Bongo victory would mean continued economic inequality that prevents ordinary citizens from benefiting from Gabon's oil wealth, which has shrunk amid a slump in global oil prices.

"You have before you two choices. Life and death. If he wins, you choose death. If we win, you choose life," Ping told supporters at a rally over the weekend.



EN NW PKG GABON (ELECTION) HEALTH

The bitter exchanges between the two camps have included accusations, and strenuous denials, that Bongo was born in Nigeria and therefore ineligible to run.

Ping's own roots – he is Sino-Gabonese – served as ammunition for Bongo's camp, which has suggested he and his son are secretly serving Chinese interests.

'Dictatorship'

The two rivals go back a long way, having worked for years together under Bongo senior, who was responsible for getting Ping his job as chairman of the African Union Commission.

Ping also has close family ties to the Bongo dynasty: he is the father of two children by Ali's sister.

He turned on Bongo in 2014, and in March he told French daily Le Monde that "Gabon is a pure and simple dictatorship in the hands of a family, a clan."

Fears that the results will deliver unrest are fuelled by memories of the violence that followed Bongo's 2009 victory against Andre Mba Obame.

Several people were killed, buildings looted, a ceasefire imposed and the French consulate in the economic capital Port-Gentil torched.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS, AP)

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