Ping, a former diplomat, is adamant the vote was stolen by Bongo, whose family has ruled Gabon for decades.
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Opposition parties in Africa frequently say votes are rigged, but the results are rarely overturned and it is unusual for a president once declared victor, as in this case, to face significant worldwide pressure over the election. Gabon recalled its ambassador earlier this year after the French government appeared to question the legitimacy of Bongo’s 2009 election win.
He also accused opposition leader Jean Ping of a “massive fraud”.
The president has come under worldwide scrutiny following his razor-thin election win last week and the European Union has questioned the validity of the election which the opposition has dismissed as a sham. France, the former colonial ruler once close to Bongo’s father and predecessor, supports the idea of a recount. Clashes quickly broke out in the Central African country after the.
Bongo says if electoral fraud was committed, it was by his opponent, Jean Ping. I can not violate the law. “As far as a recount is concerned. that’s done at the level of the Constitutional Court”.
“It is an urgent matter and I expect the high-level delegation to be dispatched very soon”, AU spokesman Jacob Enoh Eben said on Tuesday. He said he was preparing his own objections. But it has ruled out intervening in Gabon, where it has a military base.
On Tuesday the European Union questioned the legitimacy of the election results in Gabon on 27 August.
Bongo’s re-election would extend a family dynasty in power since the 1960s.
“The integrity of the provisional results for this province is consequently put into question”, said Mariya Gabriel, the EU’s chief observer of the polls.
The Constitutional Court is expected to meet on Thursday to consider a challenge by Ping.
“They say that the former minister, of all people, should know. that the law says that aggrieved party. needs to go to the Constitutional Court, file a petition, and only the Constitutional Court can order a recount”.
On Tuesday, an European Union election observer team reported a “clear anomaly” in voting in Haut-Ogooue province, Bongo’s heartland. Other provinces had a turnout between 45 percent and 71 percent.
The EU mission also supported that claim.
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The EU observer mission said the number of non-voters and blank or invalid ballots were at variance with the reported participation rate, adding turnout in other regions was around 48%.
