Authorithies in Gabon say they are well prepared to respond to opposition leader Jean Ping’s election result petition request by providing evidence that he falsified documents during the campaign, All Africa reports.
Chairperson of the Ali Bongo legal campaign committee, Ali Akbar Obegue said that they were well equipped to provide the Constitutional Court with evidence to prove that Ping’s camp had falsified documents outside the province of Haut-Ogooue.
“The irregularities we found are that we are almost sure that Ping falsified documents including those that he handed to us. The documents are facts.
Those that you see on my table each time. That kind of document that is everywhere in the country. So what Ping has done is to the detriment of Ali Bongo and we have all these evidence and will submit them to the Constitutional Court,” said Obegue.
Ping took his bid to have a wafer-thin presidential election loss overturned to the country’s top court, as Bongo blamed the opposition leader for creating a climate of violence.
Days of riots followed the August 31 announcement handing Bongo a narrow victory with a margin of some 6 000 votes, and Ping warned of more trouble to come if the court, which has 15 days to decide, rejects his recount appeal.
“I greatly fear that another false step by the Constitutional Court will be the cause of deep and long-lasting instability in Gabon,” Ping told hundreds of supporters in Libreville.
Gabon’s UN Ambassador Michael Moussa-Adamo claimed that there may be a government announcement on Friday about the constitutional court.
Moussa-Adamo accused Ping of trying to rig the election and said the government has a confession from someone who allegedly helped his party hack the results.
“We have mountains of evidence of tampering from neighboring countries” to help Ping “steal the election,” Moussa-Adamo said. “It’s covert and documented.”
