PARIS, Sept 7 Gabon’s re-elected President Ali Bongo, who has come under global scrutiny following his razor-thin election win last week, said on Wednesday that if electoral fraud was committed it was by his opponent Jean Ping. Elected president Ali Bongo received 49.8 percent of the vote against 48.23 percent for rival Jean Ping.
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Several people have died since the violence erupted in the central African nation, which has been ruled by the Bongo family since 1967.
The opposition party must legally file any complaints by Thursday, eight days after the announcement of the results.
“Mr Ping’s call went unheeded.it failed”, Bongo declared, vowing: “Chaos will not take hold”.
“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.
The EU observer commission said in addition to not having full access to all districts within Bongo’s stronghold Haut-Ogooue province, voter turnout there appeared inflated.
France had joined the European Union and the U.S. in calling for the results to be published according to each polling station but, until now, had stopped short of demanding a recount. The EU noted that would mean only 47 people in the area would not have voted.
Turnout in the other provinces was between 45 per cent and 71per cent, according to Gabon’s interior ministry.
Gabon’s President Ali Bongo shrugged off growing global pressure on Wednesday to recount last week’s disputed election, saying it was a matter for the constitutional court to decide.
One third of its population lives in poverty, even though the country boasts one of Africa’s highest per capita incomes – $8,300 annually – thanks to its oil wealth.
“We hope the African Union mission. will demand, as did President Ping, as well as national and worldwide public opinion, a recount polling station by polling station”, said Ping spokesman Rene Ndemezo Obiang at a press conference.
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.
It is hard to independently verify reports of any deaths in the postelection violence, as the internet in Gabon has been shut off since August 31.
France has intervened in its former African colonies in the past but has ruled out intervention in Gabon, which has been run by the Bongo family for half a century.
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Bongo is under increasing pressure at home and overseas after Justice Minister Seraphin Moundounga resigned on Monday demanding a recount “polling station by polling station”. He was elected in 2009 after the death of his father, longtime ruler Omar Bongo, and protests followed.
