Gabon pposition leader Jean Ping on Saturday rejected what he said was an \u201cunjust\u201d ruling by the Constitutional Court which upheld the victory of President Ali Bongo in the August 27 poll that he says was tarnished by fraud.<\/p>\n
The refusal by Ping, who says he won the presidential poll, to accept the court ruling raises the prospect of a potentially violent political crisis in the central African oil producer.<\/p>\n
The court had agreed to Ping\u2019s petition to re-examine results in Haut-Ogooue province, where Bongo was declared to have won 95 percent on a turnout of 99.9 percent.<\/p>\n
However, in a ruling late on Friday, it refused to accept copies of vote tally sheets provided as evidence by Ping, stating he had failed to prove their authenticity.<\/p>\n
Speaking to supporters and reporters at his residence in the capital Libreville, Ping called for people to \u201cremain vigilant and mobilised\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will ensure the choice of the Gabonese people is respected. 2016 will not be 2009,\u201d Ping said.<\/p>\n
Bongo came to power in a contentious 2009 election following the death of his father Omar Bongo, who was president of Gabon for 42 years.<\/p>\n
Ping, a lifelong political insider in Gabon who has also served as chairman of the African Union Commission, was a close ally of Omar Bongo.<\/p>\n
Bongo sought to ease tensions on Saturday, calling for dialogue and promising a new inclusive government.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to inviting members of all political parties to join our efforts and come with us to the Cabinet,\u201d he told Reuters in an interview.<\/p>\n
He said the new government would \u201cmost likely\u201d include leading opposition figures and did not rule out the possibility of reserving a place for Ping.<\/p>\n
However, he rejected the option of international mediation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t need international mediation. Among Gabonese, we know how to talk to each other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Gabon\u2019s government was placed under renewed international pressure when the European Union (EU) complained on Saturday that its elections observer mission had been granted \u201cvery limited access\u201d to the court\u2019s review of results.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsequently, the Gabonese people\u2019s confidence in the integrity of the electoral process can, legitimately, be put in doubt,\u201d High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini and Development Commissioner Neven Mimica said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The Foreign Ministry of former colonial power France echoed the EU, saying in a statement that the court\u2019s examination of the results did not \u201cremove all doubt\u201d.<\/p>\n
Chad\u2019s President, Idriss Deby, the African Union\u2019s (AU) current Chairman, meanwhile duly noted the court decision and called upon Bongo to create the necessary conditions for fruitful dialogue.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Deby) urges the political opposition to demonstrate more responsibility and privilege dialogue and consultation,\u201d said a statement released by Chad\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n
The AU had dispatched a team of judges to monitor the work of the Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n
Six people were killed earlier this month in riots that followed the Interior Minister\u2019s declaration of Bongo as winner of the poll by fewer than 6,000 votes.<\/p>\n
The opposition claims up to 100 people died..l<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gabon pposition leader Jean Ping on Saturday rejected what he said was an \u201cunjust\u201d ruling by the Constitutional Court which upheld the victory of President Ali Bongo in the August 27 poll that he says was tarnished by fraud. The refusal by Ping, who says he won the presidential poll, to accept the court ruling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":32532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32533,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32530\/revisions\/32533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}