Gabon's President Bongo re-elected, opposition rejects result

By Gerauds Wilfried Obangome LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - Gabon's Ali Bongo has been re-elected as President, according to official results released on Wednesday, setting the stage for a potentially violent post-election showdown after his rival Jean Ping had already claimed victory. Opposition members of the Central African oil producer's electoral commission rejected Saturday's first-past-the-post election result, which could extend nearly 50 years of Bongo family rule. Bongo won 49.80 percent of votes, compared to 48.23 percent for Ping, with a turnout of 59.46 percent, according to results announced by Interior Minister Pacome Moubelet Boubeya. "This presidential election projects us into a new era, a new dimension of our democracy," Bongo's spokesman Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze said in a statement. Ali Bongo was first elected in 2009 after the death of his father, Omar Bongo, who ran Gabon for 42 years. He benefited from being the incumbent in a country with a patronage system lubricated by oil. But Gabon's economic troubles, caused by falling oil output and prices, have fuelled opposition charges that its 1.8 million people have struggled under Bongo's leadership. Gabon's main cities had been on edge since Tuesday, with residents stockpiling food and the security forces increasing their presence on the streets ahead of the expected announcement, which was later postponed by one day. Results from the poll began leaking out from a meeting of the elections commission even before the interior minister's official declaration. Commission members belonging to the opposition abstained from a vote that validated the result. "We tell the people of Gabon not to let their victory be stolen from them. Ali Bongo does not own this country," Paul Marie Gondjout, a commission member for Ping's party, told Reuters. Gabon's capital Libreville was calm immediately after the announcement of the election outcome, which was broadcast on state-owned television, though police and soldiers were stationed at most crossroads and petrol stations. (Additional reporting by Matt Bigg in Accra and Tim Cocks in Dakar and Joe Bavier in Abidjan; Writing by Edward McAllister and Joe Bavier; Editing by Catherine Evans and Alexander Smith)