Unrest as dictator's son declared winner in Gabon

LIBREVILLE, Gabon (AP) -- The government of this oil-rich African nation on Thursday declared the eldest son of the late dictator Omar Bongo the winner of weekend presidential elections, triggering allegations of fraud by a main opposition candidate and a rampage in which the French consulate was torched.

Before the results of Sunday's election were announced on state TV, police fired tear gas at opposition demonstrators who camped outside the electoral commission in the capital overnight. The results had been expected Wednesday night but were delayed until Thursday morning because the election commission disagreed on how to review province-by-province results.

Within hours of the announcement by the country's interior minister, opposition supporters attacked the French consulate in the oil hub of Port Gentil, 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Libreville, setting the building alight and ransacking nearby shops, a local TV station reported.

The unrest is not likely to affect global oil prices, said Leo Drollas, chief economist at the London-based Center for Global Energy Studies, noting Gabon's small petroleum output. According to the U.S. Energy Administration, Gabon produces 247,000 barrels of oil a day, one-tenth of Nigeria's output.

Demonstrators' rage was directed at France because the former colonial ruler is widely believed to have propped up the Bongo regime. At the elder Bongo's funeral in June, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his predecessor Jacques Chirac were jeered. The dictator had squandered money on vanity projects like a marbled presidential palace and a little-used railroad instead of building roads and other infrastructure.

The demonstrators ransacked shops as they tore through Port Gentil's main market, carrying away refrigerators and TV sets. They also broke down the doors to the prison, liberating the prisoners, said Dianney Madztou, the editor-in-chief of local TV station Top Bendje.

Interior Minister Jean-Francois Ndongou said Ali Bongo, the country's defense minister who campaigned from a private jet and plastered the capital with billboards, won with 41.7 percent of the vote.

The top two opposition leaders -- Andre Mba Obame and Pierre Mamboundou -- were nearly tied, receiving 25.8 and 25.2 percent of the vote respectively, Ndongou said. Obame owns a TV station, which lost its signal and was fired on earlier in the week.

Mamboundou called the election results "a fraudulent farce" and insisted that results of individual polling stations showed he had around 40 percent of the vote, with Bongo snaring less than 30.

"It's not just a possibility of fraud. It's fraud pure and simple," Mamboundou said late Wednesday when the results were supposed to have been announced by Ndongou. "The Gabonese people do not want a dynasty. Forty-two years of President Bongo is enough. They want change."

Opposition leaders and hundreds of supporters camped out overnight in the main square flanking the election commission's office. They dragged a coffin into the square representing the death of the Bongo regime, which has ruled since 1967.

Police fired tear gas canisters Thursday morning, sending protesters running.

Bongo, 50, held senior posts for years in his father's Cabinet and was appointed foreign minister in 1989. Since 1999, he has been defense minister.

On Sunday, a television channel owned by Obame inexplicably lost its signal. The station borrowed equipment to broadcast the election results but around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, masked men opened fire with artillery on the station, damaging its satellite uplink, station manager Franck Nguema told The Associated Press.

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