LIBREVILLE, Sept 9 Gabon opposition leader Jean Ping on Friday urged an worldwide inquiry into violence that followed the announcement of presidential election results in which at least six people were killed.
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“I strongly fear that a new false step by the Constitutional Court would be the cause of profound and sustained instability in Gabon”, Ping told a news conference where he also called for an global inquiry into the killing of several of his supporters during post-election riots.
The challenge, filed Thursday afternoon just before the deadline to contest the election results, centers on the province that provided President Ali Bongo his margin of victory in the official results. There is no provision for a runoff in Gabon.
France said on Friday it was closely following the case in the oil-rich Central African country which is home to 14,000 of its citizens and a permanent military base.
Gabon’s U.N. Ambassador Michael Moussa-Adamo told TheAssociated Press that there may be a government announcement Friday about the constitutional court.
He accused Ping of trying to rig the election and said the government has a confession from someone who allegedly helped his party hack the results.
“We are challenging the results of Haut-Ogooue, the native province of Mr. Bongo, in which he has won the province with 95.6 percent of the voting on 99.93 level of participation of the voters, which is nonsense”, said Gondjout.
Other provinces showed a 48 percent voter turnout on average, the European Union said. The opposition maintains as many as 100 people have died in the violence, while the government toll remains at three dead.
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Bongo was first elected seven years ago after the death of his father Omar.
