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.
FOX HUNT: To suppress dissent, Chinese living abroad that Xi Jinping sees as threats are told to either return to China or commit suicide, Christopher Wray said Chinese agents have been pursuing hundreds of Chinese nationals living in the US in an effort to force their return, as part of a global campaign against the country’s diaspora, known as Operation Fox Hunt, FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday. In a speech about the security threat posed by China, during which he said Beijing’s counterintelligence work was the “greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality,” Wray gave the example of one Fox Hunt target who was given a choice of going back to China or killing themselves. Fox Hunt was launched
INTERNET CURBS: People are rushing to erase their digital footprints after police given powers over online activity, although it might take years for the full effect to be felt At midnight on Tuesday, the Great Firewall of China, the vast apparatus that limits the country’s Internet, appeared to descend on Hong Kong. Unveiling expanded police powers as part of contentious new national security legislation, the Hong Kong government enabled police to censor online speech, and force Internet service providers to hand over user information and shut down platforms. Many residents, already anxious since the legislation took effect last week, rushed to erase their digital footprint of any signs of dissent or support for the past year of protests. Hong Kong Legislator Charles Mok (莫乃光), a pro-democracy member of the Legislative
‘SUICIDE’: Media reports said Park Won-soon went missing on Thursday after a staff member filed a sexual harassment claim against him this week Seoul mayor Park Won-soon, viewed as a potential candidate for the 2022 presidential election, was found dead of an apparent suicide hours after he was reported missing, police said, adding that he was the subject of an undisclosed investigation. In a note he is thought to have left behind on his desk, Park offered his apologies. “I thank everyone who was with me in my life. I apologize to my family for only making them suffer from pain,” according to the note that was released by his office yesterday. Park, in his letter, asked to be cremated and have his remains spread
RISKY BUSINESS: The Chinese firm has stockpiled 500,000 pieces of 5G equipment not covered by US sanctions, but fears a wider ban could be announced in the UK Huawei Technologies Co believes it can supply 5G hardware unaffected by US sanctions to the UK for the next five years, sidestepping the expected conclusion of British emergency review on Tuesday. The company has stockpiled 500,000 pieces of kit, but fears a wider ban on its equipment is to be unveiled to placate rebel British Conservative Party lawmakers, who say that the Chinese supplier represents a national security risk. The British government on Friday said that it was “very likely” that British Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Oliver Dowden would make a statement to parliament on Tuesday
RSS