Gabon: Ali Bongo re-elected president

Gabon’s Ali Bongo has been re-elected as President for a second term, in a closely contested presidential election according to official results released on Wednesday.

Bongo won 49.80 percent of the vote against 48.23 percent for his rival Jean Ping – a razor-thin margin of 5,594 votes out of a total 627,805 registered voters.

“This presidential election projects us into a new era, a new dimension of our democracy,” Bongo’s spokesman Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze said in a statement.
Bongo was first elected in 2009.

The country’s economic woes, caused by falling oil prices had fueled opposition charges during the campaigns that its 1.8 million people have struggled under Bongo’s leadership.

Election commission members belonging to the opposition immediately denounced the result, with one commissioner for Ping’s party, Paul Marie Gondjout, saying the vote had been “stolen”.

Presidential elections in Gabon are held in a single round – with the candidate with the most votes winning outright.
The constitutional court now must finalize the provisional results.

Source: Agencies