Gabon's two main presidential candidates each claimed victory and accused one another of cheating as counting of votes began.
The election pit President Ali Bongo, who was seeking a second seven-year term, against Jean Ping, a former chairman of the African Union Commission, who broke with the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party in 2014. Eleven other candidates were on the ballot in the central African nation.
"We are already on our way to a second term, pending confirmation by relevant authorities," Alain Claude Bilie-By-Nze, a spokesman for the Bongo campaign, said at a news conference after voting ended Saturday, the Gabonreview.com news service reported. "We noted massive fraud in particular areas where the opposition representatives could arrive first at the polls."
Bongo, 57, was first elected four months after the 2009 death in office of his father, Omar Bongo, who was at the time the world's longest-serving president.
Ping's campaign claimed that he won 68 percent of the vote, with 40 percent of the ballots counted, Gabonreview reported.
