The head of the 73-strong EU electoral monitoring team in Gabon, Bulgarian MEP Mariya Gabriel, said yesterday that the country’s presidential election held at the weekend lacked transparency.
The remarks came after a bitterly disputed election in which both sides accused the other of electoral fraud.
Gabriel, who spoke to reporters in the capital Libreville, insisted that the poll did not follow the best standard practice.
“The mission condemns the lack of transparency in the electoral bodies which failed to make essential information available to the campaigns, like the electoral roll or a list of polling stations,” the monitoring team head said.
The EU observers said that a week before the election that only half of voters had received their ballot cards.
Official results will not be published until today, and there are fears that the tensions may erupt into a repeat of the violence seen after the disputed 2009 election.
Opposition candidate Jean Ping, who has claimed victory in the vote which pitted him against the incumbent Ali Bongo, accused the national election commission of manipulation and tampering with the outcome of the poll.
“The people of Gabon, who have mobilised massivelyand want me to run the country will never accept having their victory stolen from them,” the 73-year-old said at his campaign headquarters in Libreville.
“They will defend by all means the victory that civil and military hawks now want to steal,” he said in the midst of prominent people formerly associated with the Bongo regime who have supported his campaign.
Ping also vowed to guarantee complete security for Bongo and his family if he stepped down from the presidency and pledged there would not be a witch hunt once he had departed.
The remarks came after a bitterly disputed election in which both sides accused the other of electoral fraud.
Gabriel, who spoke to reporters in the capital Libreville, insisted that the poll did not follow the best standard practice.
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| Ali Bongo |
The EU observers said that a week before the election that only half of voters had received their ballot cards.
Official results will not be published until today, and there are fears that the tensions may erupt into a repeat of the violence seen after the disputed 2009 election.
Opposition candidate Jean Ping, who has claimed victory in the vote which pitted him against the incumbent Ali Bongo, accused the national election commission of manipulation and tampering with the outcome of the poll.
“The people of Gabon, who have mobilised massivelyand want me to run the country will never accept having their victory stolen from them,” the 73-year-old said at his campaign headquarters in Libreville.
“They will defend by all means the victory that civil and military hawks now want to steal,” he said in the midst of prominent people formerly associated with the Bongo regime who have supported his campaign.
Ping also vowed to guarantee complete security for Bongo and his family if he stepped down from the presidency and pledged there would not be a witch hunt once he had departed.
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