The African Union (AU) will send its observers to Gabon to help the country’s Constitutional Court with an election petition lodged by opposition leader Jean Ping who accuses President Ali Bongo of rigging the August vote.
Riots engulfed Gabon following the declaration of Bongo as the winner of the August 27 vote, leading to the deaths of at least six people.
President Bongo’s family has been at the helm of Gabon’s leadership for nearly 50 years now.
Ping lost the election by less than 6,000 votes, but rejected the results saying his opponent Bongo had rigged the result.
He went on to lodge a petition in court seeking a recount of the votes in the Haut-Ogooue province, Bongo’s stronghold, where the president won 95 percent of the votes on a 99.9 percent turnout.
The European Union, which sent observers to the election, cited anomalies in the results from the province.
