“Security forces surrounded the opposition headquarters overnight and stormed the building in the early hours of Thursday morning, killing two and injuring more than a dozen there”, Ping to AFP. Gabon’s president has narrowly won re-election, election officials said Wednesday Aug. 31, 2016, keeping alive a family dynasty in this oil-rich Central African country that reaches back to the 1960’s.
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Authorities said President Ali Bongo Ondimba defeated opposition candidate Jean Ping by a slim margin.
Ping called for worldwide assistance to protect the population of the oil-producing state and said Saturday’s election was stolen by Bongo, who was declared the victor on Wednesday. “Who has won? One million, eight hundred thousand Gabonese with whom we will progress together”.
On Thursday, police spread throughout the city, dispersing small groups of protesters who had set up barricades.
Ping’s supporters have taken to the streets in protest, burning cars and buildings, vandalizing and looting.
However, the results – which gave Bongo 49.8 percent to Ping’s 48.23 percent (a gap of less than 6,000 votes) – remain “provisional” until approved by the constitutional court.
The unrest killed at least three people, Boubeya said, without giving details.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged political leaders and their supporters “to refrain from further acts that could undermine the peace and stability of the country”.
Paul Marie Gondjout, an opposition electoral representative, said Thursday that soldiers in green berets shot live rounds during an attack on the headquarters, injuring at least 20.
The president of the opposition National Union party, Zacharie Myboto, who was inside the besieged building, said security forces were hurling tear gas canisters and had opened fire. Ping was not in the building.
“It was a part of securing the headquarters of Jean Ping, because all of the operations for the capital had been planned there”, said Bilie-By-Nze, referring to the protests.
A Red Cross worker who gave his name as Gildas said one of 15 people injured who was brought in by an army truck had died on Thursday.
It called on the government to release results from each polling station in order to “give the people of Gabon, as well as the global community, confidence the announced vote tallies are accurate”.
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Looting and clashes also followed Bongo’s previous election win in 2009, when he came to power after the death of his father, longtime ruler Omar Bongo.
