Gabon’s justice minister says he has resigned over the government’s refusal to recount controversial ballots that saw violent protests and allegations of fraud after the president was re-elected by a slim margin.
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Top opposition candidate Jean Ping has declared he is the rightful victor of last month’s vote.
The unrest began following official results that show Bongo with 49.8 percent of the vote and challenger Ping with 48.2 percent.
“The European observers on the ground (.) have expressed their criticism on the basis of objective facts”, Valls told French radio station RTL.
He also said the country’s authorities have not heard from several French citizens in Gabon in the last few days, adding that the country is concerned.
Gabonese authorities, however, say the death toll stands at three, besides 105 wounded, and that some deaths were previously attributed incorrectly to the clashes.
After being shuttered for days over the post-election violence, banks and shops were re-opened in the seaside city and taxis were returning to the streets.
One of their main complaints is that Gabon’s ample oil wealth has not been shared fairly amongst the Central African country’s population of 1.8 million.
“It’s true that we have no news of around 15 French citizens, who are in many cases French-Gabonese bi-nationals”.
Gabon last experienced post-electoral violence in 2009 after Bongo succeeded his father, Omar Bongo, who had ruled the country for 42 years.
“We can not accept that our people will be killed like animals without reacting”, Ping said on Facebook.
Ping is calling for vote recount, something the Gabonese authorities have categorically refused to contemplate.
Even after the vote result in the other provinces had been settled, electoral commission members fiercely debated the count for Haut-Ogooue, the heartland of Bongo’s Teke ethnic group, before the incumbent was declared the victor on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a high-level African Union delegation including heads of state is ready to be dispatched to Libreville to help calm the situation, AU chairman and Chad President Idriss Deby said.
According to a statement by Pacome, at least seven people have died in the violence and hundreds have been injured. Ping has also called for a general strike. I did this. And immediately the difficulties we’ve seen stopped.
“He is reported to have warned the incumbent, Ali Bongo, that he could cancel the results of the election if they did not “tally with reality”, reported the BBC.
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United Nations human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said on Tuesday the organization was following the situation in Gabon with “increased concern”.
