On Tuesday the European Union questioned the legitimacy of the election results in Gabon on 27 August.
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On Tuesday, an European Union mission observing the August 27 polls reported a “clear anomaly” in voting in Haut-Ogooue province, Bongo’s heartland.
Authorities appeared to have restored order in the capital on Tuesday, as election monitors focused on the southeastern Haut-Ogooue province, a Bongo stronghold where industry ministry figures showed he won 95.46 percent of the vote on a 99.9 percent turnout. “If we are raising anomalies, we have to be clear, balanced and raise all the anomalies that have been noted”, Bongo told France’s RTL radio, in an interview broadcast on Wednesday. I can not violate the law.
“African governments are often accused of not respecting the law”.
“We can not accept that our people will be killed like animals without reacting”, Ping said on Facebook.
Ping, a former diplomat, has said he has no faith in the constitutional court because of its alleged ties to the Bongo family and said in his interview with Reuters late on Tuesday that a recount under global supervision should be conducted first. The deadline for doing so is 1500 GMT on Thursday.
“They will defend by all means the victory that civil and military hawks now want to steal”, he said in the midst of prominent people formerly associated with the Bongo regime who have supported his campaign.
Gabon’s opposition has yet to say if it will appeal through the Constitutional Court for a recount through, while the government has so far dismissed all calls to publish more detailed results, prompting the justice minister to resign.
In the chaos following the result, opposition demonstrators clashed with police and the country’s parliament was set on fire. “I propose to cease all activity and begin a general strike”, Ping said in a statement on Monday.
But Bongo hit back, accusing observers overlooking irregularities “in the fiefdom of Mr. Ping”.
Bongo accused Ping, a former African Union Commission chairman, of attempting “massive fraud” and said it was hard to envisage dialogue with “people who ask the Gabonese to go into the street to loot and destroy and burn things”.
The post-vote violence in this small but oil-rich central African nation has sparked global concern, with top diplomats calling for restraint as rights groups raised the alarm over the use of “excessive force”.
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Opposition anger at Bongo’s re-election boiled over into riots in the capital, Libreville, and other towns, killing six people, according to the government. France has maintained significant presence in the country after it became independent in 1960.
