Angry protesters torched Gabon's parliament Wednesday after President Ali Bongo was declared winner of what he claimed was a "peaceful and transparent" election, but which the opposition said was fraudulent.
It only took a few minutes for the announcement to sink in before several of Libreville's poorer neighbourhoods erupted in anger, with thousands of people taking to the streets to express their fury.
According to official results made public shortly after 1500 GMT, Bongo won Saturday's presidential poll by just 5,594 votes, taking 49.80 percent to 48.23 percent for his rival Jean Ping, a veteran diplomat and former top African Union official.

The results will remain "provisional" until they are approved by the constitutional court.

By nightfall, protesters vented their fury by setting fire to the parliament building, sending skyward a plume of flame and black smoke, witnesses and AFP correspondents said.

Fires were visible in other parts of Libreville and explosions were heard as protesters faced off against heavily armed security forces.

"The whole building is catching fire," a man outside parliament who gave name as Yannick told AFP.

The parliament lies on the same road as the state TV headquarters, senate, town hall, oil ministry, several embassies and the French cultural centre.

As soon as Bongo's victory in Saturday's poll was announced Wednesday, people took to the streets of the city's slums, chanting "Ali must go."

- Slim margin -

As helicopters flew overhead and smoke rose above poorer neighbourhoods, soldiers, police and gendarmes stopped traffic on the main highway where protestors braved tear gas to set tyres alight.

Protestors shouted, "Jean Ping president!" and "They stole the election."

Ping, a half Chinese career diplomat has rejected the results, and before they were announced had declared it was he who won.

There was also trouble Wednesday in the economic capital Port Gentil, which saw the worst of the violence that followed Bongo's 2009 election victory.

That contested vote followed the death of Bongo's father, Omar Bongo, who ruled the oil-rich country for 41 years.

Any appeal by Ping would likely focus on disputed results in one of the country's nine provinces -- the Haut-Ogooue, the heartland of Bongo's Teke ethnic group.

In Saturday's vote, turnout was 59.46 percent nationwide but soared to 99.93 percent in Haut-Ogooue, where Bongo won 95.5 percent of votes.

"It's going to be difficult to get people to accept these results," one member of the electoral commission confided to AFP, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject.

"We've never seen results like these, even during the father's time," he added.

Opposition delegates in the electoral commission have vowed to fight for a recount.

- 'Let's change together' -

Ping, the European Union and former colonial power France have called for voting figures from each of Gabon's polling stations to be made public to ensure the credibility of overall result.

In 2009, Bongo was declared winner of the election after his father's death. In the ensuing clashes several people were killed, buildings looted and the French consulate in the economic capital Port Gentil torched.

EU observers, who were barred from the meeting of the electoral commission on Wednesday, said the vote on Saturday was "managed in a way that lacked transparency".

Joining the EU in pressuring Bongo on Wednesday, the French foreign ministry called for the electoral commission to show "transparency and impartiality".

"Only in this way can the credibility of the results be guaranteed," a spokesman for the French foreign ministry on Wednesday.

Gabon is a former French colony which has been hit by the global slump in the price of crude oil, its biggest export.

One third of Gabon's population lives in poverty, despite the country boasting one of Africa's highest per capita incomes at $8,300 (7,400 euros) thanks to pumping 200,000 barrels of oil a day.

Bongo, 57, campaigned under the slogan "Let's change together," playing up the roads and hospitals built during his first term and stressing the need to break with the bad old days of disappearing public funds and dodgy management of oil revenues.

The campaign period was marked by months of bitter exchanges between the two camps, including accusations, and strenuous denials, that Bongo was born in Nigeria and therefore ineligible to run.

Ping's own roots -- he is Sino-Gabonese -- served as ammunition for Bongo's camp, which has suggested he and his son are secretly serving Chinese interests.

http://lifedrama.com.ng/tension-as-angry-protesters-set-senate-on-fire-in-gabon-photo/

More Cc; Lalasticlala, Ishilove, Semid4lyfe, Obinoscopy, Mynd44 can this make FTP sir?

Africans are waking up gradually....

In as much as I kinda like what they did and wish it would be done to those pretenders that seat in the green and red chambers of Nigeria, mankind on a serious note need to find a lasting solution to violence that is springing up from all corners of the earth.

No peace anywhere! But why

Citizens of this country have no business being poor..but see wetin bad governance cost them

Africa! My dear Africa!

i weep for thee....

and Nigeria sabi copy copy....

God will save all this African leaders. Can't you just do 1 term and leave. The people actually don't want him

Africa
This would have happened in Nigeria at a time.
I am not sure anyway.

afonjas are drawing us back, this could be N******

Africa is so fucjed up shit

Election wahala. EVERYWHERE!

Na wa, Africa when will you arise? That last pic is heart breaking.

For 50 years, all the populace hear is Bongo, haba when no be North Korea.

How can a lineage rule a country for nearly a decade. Frustrated citizens use election periods to explore change

Africans should brace up, but I don't encourage violence

I pray for Nigeria, that same thing don't happen if PMB decides to go for second term under this suffering Nigerians are goin through!!!


May God save Nigeria from this present Hardship

gud

marche a suivre Gabon

wailers seeing this news be like "I BLame buhari "

Gabon is playing bongo but nt at bongo square

IS there still a word like PEACE

We really need this here

Hmmm. This is what happens when a person decides to seat tight to become a tyrant and a king via democracy !!!!

Gabon? how e take concern us?





e go bring eclipse come my side?

African leaders and power hmm...shey na by force to serve?

hmmmm

Maybe someone said that dogs and baboons will be soaked in blood if he does not win there also.



www.nairaland.com/attachments/2027919_image_jpeg9f360c5ab7736510df54c882e9dbf188

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPPb3ioHGE0

the eclipse is cool

from VI

Yet some people still don't understand what danger GEJ saved Nigeria by surrendering power even when he could have rigged



Thank you GEJ

okenwa:
How can a lineage rule a country for nearly a decade. Frustrated citizens use election periods to explore change

A decade? His father ruled for 41 yes +his previous 7 yes which equals 48 yrs.
Its almost 5 decades nwanne,that can never happen in naija.