{"id":29205,"date":"2016-09-24T03:56:22","date_gmt":"2016-09-24T01:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/29205-gabon-court-upholds-president-ali-bongo-s-election-win.html"},"modified":"2016-09-24T03:56:22","modified_gmt":"2016-09-24T01:56:22","slug":"gabon-court-upholds-president-ali-bongo-s-election-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/29205-gabon-court-upholds-president-ali-bongo-s-election-win.html","title":{"rendered":"Gabon court upholds President Ali Bongo's election win"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Gabon's constitutional court has upheld President's Ali Bongo's re-election victory, rejecting an appeal by rival Jean Ping, who had called for a recount over widespread allegations of fraud.<\/p>\n

The court, while partially changing the results of the close August 27 vote, said Bongo maintained a lead over his former ally-turned-opponent Ping.<\/p>\n

At a televised public hearing overnight in Libreville, in an almost empty room, the court said Bongo had taken 50.66 percent of the vote against 47.24 percent for Ping.<\/p>\n

The announcement of Bongo's victory after the bitterly fought election had sparked days of deadly violence.<\/p>\n

In his first comments after the ruling, Bongo, 57, appealed for \"political dialogue\" with the opposition to steer the country out of the crisis triggered by the announcement of his victory.<\/p>\n

\"I call all political leaders, including the defeated candidates in the August 27 election, for a political dialogue,\" Bongo said in a speech broadcast on television.<\/p>\n

In his legal challenge, Ping had asked for a recount in the Bongo family stronghold of Haut-Ogooue province, where the president won more than 95 percent of the votes and turnout was declared to be more than 99 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

EU observers have said there was a \"clear anomaly\" in those results.<\/p>\n

\"No one can dispute the fact that Jean Ping has roundly won this election,\" his spokesman Jean Gaspard Ntoutoume Ayi told AFP after the court announcement, adding that Ping would make a statement on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

Ping, 73, a career diplomat and a former top official at the African Union, had been hoping to end the Bongo family's 50-year grip on power in the oil-rich country of 1.8 million people.<\/p>\n

The streets of Libreville were empty ahead of the ruling, with residents fearing a new bout of bloodshed.<\/p>\n

With the country in political limbo for nearly a month, concern had been growing that a ruling in favour of Bongo could spark a fresh wave of opposition protests.<\/p>\n

Across Libreville, the atmosphere was on a knife-edge with riot police deployed at key junctions in order to head off any more unrest.<\/p>\n

\u00a0- 'Judgement Day' -<\/p>\n

\u00a0Along Libreville's seafront, trucks carrying paratroopers and soldiers, their weapons at the ready, rumbled alongside cars, shared taxis and armoured vehicles on a road that passes both the court and the presidential palace.<\/p>\n

Officers in riot gear had begun fanning out through the city on Thursday, and by Friday morning, long queues could be seen outside banks and cash machines.<\/p>\n

\"Everyone is panicking, everyone is afraid,\" explained Jean Rodrigue Boukoumou, a teacher who like many others was waiting to withdraw his money to stock up on food.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"We want to withdraw our money to be able to buy provisions. We have families to feed if the country descends into chaos,\" he told AFP, expressing a widely held fear.<\/p>\n

\"Judgement day\" blared the headline in one newspaper, while another front page led with: \"The hour of the last judgement is upon us.\"<\/p>\n

\"Until the results are announced, you are requested to avoid going anywhere until further notice,\" the French embassy said on its website in a notice to its 10,000-strong community in the country.<\/p>\n

Ping had warned the country could face serious instability if the court rejected his appeal for a recount.<\/p>\n

But the government has warned Ping that he would be held responsible if fresh violence breaks out, and could find himself arrested if he crosses \"the red line\".<\/p>\n

Ping has made clear he believes Bongo has the court in his pocket, referring to it as \"the Tower of Pisa that always leans the same way\".<\/p>\n

The nation erupted in protest after Bongo was declared the winner following an election mired in allegations of fraud.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the ensuing chaos, demonstrators set fire to the parliament and clashed violently with police, who arrested around 1,000 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Opposition figures say \"more than 50\" people were killed in the violence, but the government gave a figure of three dead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gabon's constitutional court has upheld President's Ali Bongo's re-election victory, rejecting an appeal by rival Jean Ping, who had called for a recount over widespread allegations of fraud. The court, while partially changing the results of the close August 27 vote, said Bongo maintained a lead over his former ally-turned-opponent Ping. At a televised public […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":63032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[],"ji_location":[2235],"class_list":["post-29205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","ji_location-gabon"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGabon court upholds President Ali Bongo's election win - JusticeInfo.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/29205-gabon-court-upholds-president-ali-bongo-s-election-win.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gabon court upholds President Ali Bongo's election win\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gabon's constitutional court has upheld President's Ali Bongo's re-election victory, rejecting an appeal by rival Jean Ping, who had called for a recount over widespread allegations of fraud. 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