Violence broke out in Libreville on Wednesday, after Gabon’s Interior Minister Pacome Moubelet Boubeya announced the incumbent President Ali Bongo as the victor of Saturday’s poll, defeating his closest opponent and main opposition candidate Jean Ping by a very slim margin.
Advertisement
After election results were announced, Ping supporters took to the streets of Gabon’s capital city, where they clashed with anti-riot police – an ugly violence that has lasted for seven days.
Speaking on France’s Europe 1 radio station, Bongo said that criticism by European Union observers against the voting process in Gabon is “biased”.
Gabonese President Ali Bongo has denied European Union observers’ calls for a recount of last week’s disputed presidential vote, saying it was a matter for the country’s top court to decide.
“I ask you from today onward not to use violence but to resist by blocking the country’s economy”.
“I can not violate the (electoral) law”, he insisted. The opposition says the death toll is much higher.
Bongo, 57, won the election by a narrow margin, claiming 49.80% of votes, followed by his main rival Jean Ping with 48.23%. The National Assembly was set alight and badly damaged during last week’s protests.
“I invite the president of the republic to make the wise decision to avoid the useless suffering of the people”, by making public the ballot counts for each bureau, Justice Minister Seraphin Moundounga said on a private television station.
United Nations human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said on Tuesday the organisation was following the situation in Gabon with “increased concern”.
France has in the past intervened in its former African colonies, such as when it helped oust Ivory Coast’s then president Laurent Gbagbo in 2011 after he refused to concede defeat in an election.
The opposition has accused Bongo of rigging the vote and called for a recount – a call echoed by Manuel Valls, prime minister of Gabon’s former colonial power France.
The African Union has said it will send mediators to Gabon this week.
Valls on Tuesday also called on the Gabonese authorities to establish the whereabouts of around 15 French nationals who have been missing since the violence began.
Advertisement
France has a military base in Gabon but relations have soured recently.
