Hundreds detained, three dead after Gabon election protests

Gabon’s newly re-elected president sought to assert authority Thursday as the presidential guard attacked the opposition candidate’s party headquarters amid fiery protests that have seen three killed, hundreds detained and the internet blocked.

The opposition quickly alleged election fraud after results announced Wednesday showed that a family dynasty stretching back to the 1960s would remain in power in this oil-rich Central African country.

President Ali Bongo beat opposition candidate Jean Ping by a narrow margin in Saturday’s vote, 49.8 per cent to 48.2 per cent, according to the electoral commission’s provisional results.

“I know who has won and who has lost,” Bongo said Thursday to local media. “Who has won? One million, eight hundred thousand Gabonese with whom we will progress together. Who has lost? A small group which had the objective of taking power to use Gabon instead of serving it.”

Ping’s supporters have taken to the streets in protest, burning cars and buildings, vandalising and looting. They burned cars in front of the National Assembly on Wednesday night, sending thick smoke over the city, after police fired tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators.

Security forces detained 800 people in the capital, Libreville, and 400 people in other areas of the country, according to Interior Minister Pacome Moubelet Boubeya.