Business as usual, president says, as uneasy calm returns

Gabon will return to normal after a bitterly disputed election, its newly re-elected President Ali Bongo said, as soldiers patrolled and military aircraft flew over a capital that has been bracing for another explosion of violence. The Constitutional Court late on Friday threw out a challenge against the election results by rival Jean Ping, enabling […]

Gabon will return to normal after a bitterly disputed election, its newly re-elected President Ali Bongo said, as soldiers patrolled and military aircraft flew over a capital that has been bracing for another explosion of violence.
The Constitutional Court late on Friday threw out a challenge against the election results by rival Jean Ping, enabling Bongo to extend his family’s dynastic 50-year rule over the small, oil-producing central African country.
Ping swiftly rejected the ruling as biased, and many Gabonese feared a return to the violence that killed at least six people – Ping’s supporters say it was more than 50 – when the result was first announced at the start of the month.
But in a nation that usually manages to avoid the massive bloodshed that afflicts other countries in the region, like Congo and Central African Republic, when power is contested, Bongo said he was confident of a peaceful resolution.