Gabon orders recount in election furore
Gabon’s highest court is to recount votes in last month's presidential election, won by the son of Omar Bongo who ruled for 40 years. Predictably, the opposition says the election was marked by widespread fraud, and no doubt felt it was influenced by nepotism. The decision to recount came after 11 complaints of election rigging were filed in Gabon’s Constitutional Court. Ali Ben Bongo was declared winner in August, shortly after his father died. Bongo Snr was one of the world’s richest men presiding over one of the world’s poorest countries, whose sole wealth is oil. The recount should take voters’ eyes off former colonial master France’s business interests in the country of 1.4-million. Crowds previously torched a French consulate and the offices of oil firm Total shortly after the original vote count.
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