Supporters of Gabon opposition candidate Jean Ping have clashed with security forces after President Ali Bongo was declared the victor of Saturday’s presidential election.
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Overnight, security forces assaulted the headquarters of opposition leader Jean Ping, according to Ping and witnesses.
Protesters claimed the election was rigged, witnesses told Reuters.
“They were bombarding with helicopters and then they…”
Authorities in Gabon have made up to 1,100 arrests over two days of violence that erupted after President Ali Bongo was re-elected in polls that the opposition rejected as fraudulent, the interior minister told a news conference on Thursday.
Opposition challenger Jean Ping accused the elections commission of inflating Bongo’s score to hand him a slim victory and extend his family’s almost half-century rule in the oil-producing Central African country for another seven years.
Demonstrators had set fire to cars and buildings, vandalized a mall and looted a bank in the capital.
“It was a part of securing the headquarters of Jean Ping, because all of the operations for the capital had been planned there”, said Bilie-By-Nze, referring to the protests.
They accused the government of stealing the election.
“Two generations of Gabonese have lived exclusively under the Bongo presidency”, said Oumar Ba, a PhD candidate at the University of Florida who has been following the election.
“We have said that the people of Gabon are in danger”.
The results of the presidential election – which gave Bongo 49.8% to Ping’s 48.23% (a gap of less than 6,000 votes) – remain “provisional” until approved by the constitutional court.
It called on the government to release results from each polling station in order to “give the people of Gabon, as well as the worldwide community, confidence the announced vote tallies are accurate”.
The 57-year-old was elected for a first term in disputed 2009 polls following the death of his father Omar Ondimba, who had ruled Gabon since 1967.
Commission members belonging to the opposition abstained from a vote that validated the election result.
“The Secretary-General urges all concerned political leaders and their supporters to refrain from further acts that could undermine the peace and stability of the country”, he said in a statement.
Former colonial ruler France, the United States and the European Union urged the authorities to release polling station results for greater transparency.
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One third of Gabon’s population lives in poverty, despite the country boasting one of Africa’s highest per capita incomes at $8 300 (7 400 euros) thanks to pumping 200 000 barrels of oil a day.
