On the day after the elections, opposition leader Jean Ping declared victory and said that he was "waiting for the outgoing president to call to congratulate me," although no results had been officially announced.

[9] Only the electoral commission was legally permitted to announce results, and the Minister of the Interior, Pacôme Moubelet-Boubeya, accused Ping of "attempt[ing] to manipulate the democratic process," while Bongo said that "you must not sell the skin of the bear before you've killed him."

Ping's supporters maintained that the mostly complete results they had independently collected showed their candidate beating Bongo by a large margin, 59% to 38%.

[12] Following the announcement of official results, protests broke out in Libreville on 31 August, with attempts made to storm the election commission's offices.

[16] On 12 December 2022, the entire Gabonese opposition gathered in Libreville for the start of a series of meetings in view of the 2023 presidential and legislative elections.

The meeting was meant to put pressure on the government to reform the electoral process, and remind the public authorities of the need for consultation with the opposition.

[20] The elections were held using double simultaneous vote system, with voters casting a single ballot for their preferred candidate for president and National Assembly.

[24] The national electoral body announced on Wednesday, 30 August, that President Ali Bongo Ondimba, already in office for 14 years, won re-election for a third term with 64.27 percent of the vote.

During a televised morning address from the Presidential Palace in Libreville[29] on the state channel Gabon 24, around a dozen military personnel announced the end of the existing regime, with a military spokesperson claiming to be speaking on behalf of a "Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions,"[30][31][32] citing "irresponsible, unpredictable governance" that had led to "a continuous degradation of social cohesion, risking pushing the country into chaos.