In one province in Gabon, the stronghold of President Ali Bongo, the results declared by the Gabonese Electoral Commission indicated  that 99.83% of the electorate turned out to vote, and that 95.46% of them voted for Ali Bongo! The question is: how can we ensure that election results in Africa are not dependent on an electoral commission or constitutional court that is in the pocket of the incumbent?

Transparency International, the anti-corruption organisation, calls for the government of Gabon to uphold civil society’s right to peaceful activism following the detention last week of more than 40 people, including Grégory Ngbwa Mintsa, the 2010 recipient of the Transparency International Integrity Award. The civil society activists, who were taken into custody on 8 June and later released, were planning an alternative forum to a government-sponsored New York Forum Africa, a regional event to promote Gabon. The activists wanted to highlight the challenges ordinary citizens face in Gabon. Freedom of expression and the space for a vibrant civil society are essential in any country to ensure a government is accountable to its people.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Gabonese authorities to drop legal proceedings against six journalists in connection with articles raising questions about use of a presidential plane. According to a CPJ statement, two of the journalists have fled the country fearing arrest after being summoned by police for interrogation.

Gabon's constitutional court has ruled that parliamentary elections will take place on 17 December as planned, despite opposition demands for a delay in the poll to introduce biometric voters cards, officials said. Gabon's opposition has been campaigning for months to delay the elections in order to introduce the biometric system, which has been implemented in many countries for digital chips in passports and electoral cards, using individual biological data such as fingerprints or eye retina scans to combat fraud.

Outraged by President Bongo Odimba’s visit to the US from 6-9 June, Gabonese civil society has written to US President Barack Obama, calling on him to take a stand against the Bongo government’s devastation of democracy. The letter also asks Obama to revisit the speech he made in Accra after his election, which it says should inform his relationship with African leaders.

Four persons are reported to have died as Gabonese gendarmes forced more than three thousand African migrants out of a gold mining site. According to Mr Ndongo, a crisis committee set up by the Cameroonian authorities has counted a total of 2,000 Cameroonians and over 1,000 Africans of various nationalities among those who crossed the border from Gabon. They include nationals of Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali.

The central African Republic of Gabon has been facing a latent political and social crisis since 26 January. André Mba Obame, president of the now banned opposition party ‘National Union', took his oath as the country's president, claiming that he had won the June 2009 election which was officially won by Ali Bongo, son of the former president Omar Bongo. The crisis has since deepened, with protests from students and recently oil workers, despite the exit of Mba Obame from the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) building where he had sought refuge for a month.

André Mba Obame, Gabon's main opposition leader, has been stripped of parliamentary immunity as government prepares a treason case against him. The Gabonese opposition leader in January created international headlines as he declared himself winner of the elections held 17 months earlier. The failed attempt to gain power and upcoming treason trial against Obame represent a major setback for Gabon's opposition, which has been denied access to power ever since independence.

The global media's attention is focused on the revolutions sweeping through North Africa and the Middle East, with Egypt – and to a lesser extent Tunisia – being most prominent. But not all revolutions are blessed with this level of attention. The West African nation of Gabon is currently also in popular revolt. What, you haven't heard about it yet?

Gabon's late president Omar Bongo allegedly lined his pockets with money from a 37-million-dollar (28-million-euro) bank embezzlement scheme and funneled some of it to French political parties and President Nicolas Sarkozy, according to a classified US embassy cable published in Spanish daily El Pais.

A multi-billion dollar iron ore deal involving lifetime dictators and a system of power through patronage makes for a toxic mix that is bad for the people of Gabon, writes Khadija Sharife.

Gabon’s late president Omar Bongo allegedly pocketed millions in embezzled funds from central African states, channelling some of it to French political parties in support of Nicolas Sarkozy, according to a US embassy cable published by El País.

Commodities company Olam recently announced plans to invest US$1.5 billion in the African country of Gabon. Demand for agricultural commodities has outstripped supply for the last nine out of 10 years and agri-commodities companies are increasingly turning to unexplored regions like Africa for their resource needs.

Gabon presents fertile ground for Chinese investment in extractive industries, though the development of this relationship is a lengthy process and is much diversified across Gabon and the economy’s main sectors of interest to China, writes Johanna Jansson. Jansson suggests the observer of yet another African economy to come within range of China’s investment radar should take note of the diversity also present within the ranks of Chinese corporate actors, whose level of responsible conduct presents no general trend.

A Climate Council, charged with developing a National Climate Plan, has been inaugurated by the Republic of Gabon's President Ali Bongo Ondimba. During the launch, President Ali Bongo Ondimba explained that the Climate Council was set up to recommend ways in which to develop the nation sustainably while combating climate change and preventing species loss.

As the indefinite strike called by Gabon's oil workers entered day two Thursday, the government has said it is willing to resume dialogue to end the strike. "The government solemnly reaffirms its preparedness to resume the dialogue," said a statement by Labour Minister Maxime Ngozo Issondou.

Reporters Without Borders is baffled by the fact that Albert Yangari, the publisher and editor of the newspaper L’Union, and Jonas Moulenda, one of his reporters, have been summoned three times in connection with a libel suit brought by Alfred Nguia Banda, the former director-general of the Gabonese Shippers Council (CGC), which oversees maritime traffic in Gabon.

This report builds on field research conducted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Gabon in 2008 and 2009. While few of the Chinese company representatives in both Gabon and the DRC consulted for this study were aware of the EITI, all of them expressed great interest in the notion of an overarching transparency initiative.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has denounced the disproportionate sanctions imposed by the National Council of Communication (CNC) in Gabon on November 10, 2009 against eight private newspapers which have been struck with temporary prohibition of publication as well as the suspension of a very popular television program.

A crony of the newly-elected Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba, has been forced to resign from the government due to a magazine report that links him to a financial scandal. Mr Jean Pierra Oyiba who is President Ali Bongo Ondimba’s Chief of Protocol, resigned but has denied links with the scandal that was reported this week by the Paris-based Jeune Afrique magazine.