Gabon’s Constitutional Court on Monday confirmed Ali Bongo’s disputed presidential election victory after reviewing challenges from nine candidates, the court president said.
“The election of Mr Ali Bongo Ondimba as president of the Gabonese Republic is confirmed,” Chief Justice Marie Madeleine Mborantsuo said.
The court had studied 11 requests for August’s election, which opponents claim was rigged, to be annulled.
The court, which carried out a vote recount at the end of last month, said Ali Bongo, the son of veteran leader Omar Bongo Ondimba, who died in June after 41 years in power, was the winner of the election with 41.79 percent of the ballot.
In second place with 25.64 percent of the vote was veteran opposition leader Pierre Mamboundou, who originally had been named third place finisher.
In third, was the former second-place contender Andre Mba Obame, with 25.33 percent.
Results announced by the court on Sept. 4 had given Bongo 41.73 percent of the vote followed by Mba Obame with 25.88 percent and Mamboundou with 25.22 percent.
The court rejected 11 requests from nine candidates and one citizen that the election be annulled.
Before the court’s verdict was delivered, Mba Obame began a protest hunger strike, claiming Gabon was the victim of an “electoral coup d’etat,” his supporters said in a statement.
Mba Obame, a former interior minister, said in the statement his hunger strike would continue “for as long as intimidation, force and violence is used as the sole means to settle the serious socio-political crisis Gabon is currently going through.”
“I am ready to sacrifice my life so that Gabon will not sink into dictatorship, civil war and genocide,” he said.
Under the Constitution, the court needed to resolve the electoral dispute by Oct. 20.
After the court’s verdict, Faustin Boukoubi, secretary-general of Ali Bongo’s Gabonese Democratic Party, said he had “a feeling of full satisfaction.”
“Right and the law have prevailed,” he said. “All Gabonese have a president who will get down to all the problems of the Gabonese people and make Gabon into an emerging country.”
When the results of the Aug. 30 election were announced, riots shook the country’s economic capital Port-Gentil early last month. The government said three people were killed, while the opposition spoke of up to 15 deaths.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
RSS