GABON-POLITICS-UNREST-VOTE-RESULT-PROTEST

A supporter of Gabonese opposition leader Jean Ping, holding a flag of Gabon, faces riot policemen blocking the access to the electoral commission in Libreville on August 31, 2016, as part of a protest sparked after Gabon’s president Ali Bongo was declared winner of last weekend’s contested election.
Protesters shouting « Ali must go! » tried to storm the offices of the election commission shortly after authorities announced his re-election by a narrow majority. Bongo won by a narrow 5,594 votes of a total 627,805 registered voters. Turnout was 59.46 percent nationwide but soared to 99.93 percent in one of the country’s nine provinces — the Haut-Ogooue, heartland of Bongo’s Teke ethnic group — in a result hotly contested by the opposition. / AFP PHOTO / MARCO LONGARI