Gabon’s re-elected President Ali Bongo said he would be a leader for all Gabonese people and that it was for the Constitutional Court to decide whether there should be a recount of last week’s disputed vote result.
Advertisement
Turnout in the other provinces was between 45 per cent and 71per cent, according to Gabon’s interior ministry.
In an interview with Europe 1 radio, Bongo accused the European Union observers of “overstepping their mandate” and said he too was preparing to challenge some of the results.
Gabon’s re-elected President Ali Bongo shrugged off worldwide calls for a recount of last week’s disputed vote, saying it was a matter for the constitutional court to decide.
“We hope the African Union mission. will demand, as did President Ping, as well as national and global public opinion, a recount polling station by polling station”, said Ping spokesman Rene Ndemezo Obiang at a press conference.
“I can not violate the (electoral) law”, he insisted.
The official election result gave Mr Bongo a second seven-year term with 49.8 per cent of the vote to Mr Ping’s 48.2 per cent – a margin of 5,594 votes. In April, anti-corruption investigators seized several Bongo family properties in France.
Ping, a former diplomat, said he had no faith in the constitutional court, the highest legal body that can rule on an election, and said any recount should take place under global supervision.
“It is an urgent matter and I expect the high-level delegation to be dispatched very soon”, AU spokesman Jacob Enoh Eben said on Tuesday.
A main opposition complaint is that Gabon’s oil wealth has not been shared fairly among its 1.8 million population.
Gabonese authorities have so far dismissed calls from the opposition and western powers, including former colonial ruler France, to publish more detailed results of the August polls, prompting the justice minister to resign on Monday. Human rights groups say the true toll could be…
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called for a recount [RFI report] on Tuesday and for information concerning 15 French nationals that went missing after the protests. The African Union has offered to help find a solution to the crisis.
But it has ruled out intervention in Gabon where it has a military base.
Advertisement
A still image from television shows fire damage to a bus and the national assembly building in the capital, Libreville, Gabon, inflicted by anti-Bongo rioters on Friday.
