“Jean Ping has committed fraud”, Bongo said in an interview with France’s Europe 1 radio.
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07 de septiembre de 2016, 10:49Libreville, Sep 7 (Prensa Latina) President of Gabon, Ali Bongo, today rejected a recount of votes in the presidential election on August 27, despite criticism from global observers.
The European Union has questioned the validity of 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.
Bongo, who has been in power since 2009, added: “as far as a recount in concerned. that’s done at the level of the Constitutional Court”.
The poll and its violent aftermath has brought unwanted worldwide attention to the central African oil producer, which counts Total and Royal Dutch Shell PLC among foreign investors, bringing petrodollars that have flowed mostly to the elite. I can not violate the law. He told Reuters: “Everybody knows the result and everybody knows that Bongo is doing everything not to accept it”. But it has ruled out intervening in Gabon, where it has a military base.
A main opposition complaint is that Gabon’s oil wealth has not been shared fairly among its 1.8 million population but, largely ignoring an earlier strike call by Ping, shopkeepers and government staff returned to work in Libreville on Tuesday. In April, anti-corruption investigators seized several Bongo family properties in France.
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.
The opposition can launch an appeal for a recount through the Constitutional Court, although it has not yet indicated it would do so.
Ping has yet to announce whether he will challenge the election in the Constitutional Court.
On Tuesday, the observer team reported a “clear anomaly” in voting in Haut-Ogooue province, Bongo’s heartland.
The EU mission also supported that claim.
Official results gave turnout in the province at more than 99 percent, with 95 percent backing the incumbent.
In their analysis, the European Union election monitors said the number of non-voters and of blank and disqualified votes revealed a “clear anomaly in the final results in Haut-Ogooue”.
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Meanwhile, the countries’ Justice Minister Seraphin Moundounga, who is also a deputy prime minister, resigned, demanding “a recount of the votes”.
