Riots greet Gabon's elections

At press time, post-election violence in Gabon had claimed three lives. Police had also arrested about 1,100 people following riots over the announcement of President Ali Bongo Ondimba's re-election and subsequent accusations by his main rival -  Jean Ping, that the vote was rigged.

Ping accused the elections commission of inflating Bongo's score to hand him a slim victory and extend his family's nearly half-century rule in the oil-producing Central African country for another seven years.

The country's parliament was set ablaze and violent protests raged in numerous neighbourhoods of the capital Libreville.

Ping told Reuters in an interview that two people were killed and others wounded when the presidential guard assaulted his party headquarters overnight.

He called for international assistance to protect the population against what he described as "a rogue state".

According to delayed results announced by the Interior Minister - Pacome Moubelet Boubeya, Bongo won 49.80 percent of votes against 48.23 percent for Ping.

An analysis by research organisation - Afrobarometer stated that Gabon’s election dispute is playing out against a background of overwhelming public distrust of the national election commission (CENAP) and strikingly negative assessments of the country’s election environment in advance of the August 2016 vote.

Among 36 African countries surveyed in 2014/2015, Gabon ranks at or near the bottom on every indicator of election quality and fairness, according to citizen responses collected in September and October 2015. Gabon ranks dead last in public trust in the election commission: A majority (51%) of citizens said they do not trust the CENAP “at all,” and only 8% said they trust the commission “a lot.”

Gabon also ranks among the worst in citizens’ perceptions of the fairness of the vote count, the freeness and fairness of its previous national election (2011), fear of voter intimidation or violence, fair treatment of opposition candidates, and the prevalence of voter bribery.

Overall, Gabon citizens held the most negative perceptions of how well elections function to ensure that voters’ views are represented and to enable voters to remove leaders who don’t do what the people want.

The findings are part of a new Afrobarometer report, to be released next week, on citizens’ perceptions of electoral management institutions and the quality of elections, It is based on almost 54,000 interviews in 36 African countries. The new report, titled “Election quality, public trust are central issues as African nations look toward next contests,” will be available at www.afrobarometer.org.

Ali Bongo was first elected President in 2009 upon the death of his father Omar Bongo, Gabon's President for 42 years.

Ping, a political insider who has served as Foreign Minister and African Union Commission Chairman, was a close ally of the late president and fathered two children with his daughter.