Gabon’s Bongo shrugs off calls for vote recount

Gabon’s re-elected President Ali Bongo shrugged off international calls for a recount of last week’s disputed vote, saying it was a matter for the constitutional court to decide.
Opposition leader Jean Ping says the election was a sham, and the European Union has questioned the validity of the results. France, the former colonial ruler once close to Bongo’s father and predecessor, supports the idea of a recount.
The poll and its violent aftermath has brought unwanted international attention to the central African oil producer, which counts Total and Royal Dutch Shell PLC among foreign investors, bringing petrodollars that have flowed mostly to the elite.
Asked in a pre-recorded interview broadcast on Wednesday whether he would permit a recount, Bongo told France’s RTL radio: “What people should be asking me to do is apply the law. I cannot violate the law. As far as a recount is concerned ... that’s done at the level of the Constitutional Court.”
Bongo said that under Gabon’s electoral law, his opponents had until Thursday to lodge their complaints with the court.

Source: Arab News