Gabon: Election mediator visit cancelled at last minute

LIBREVILLE, Gabon

On the eve of an African Union visit to mediate Chad’s disputed presidential election, the government has cancelled the visit indefinitely.

“The mission was postponed for timing reasons,” Gabonese Foreign Minister Emmanuel Isozet Ngondet told a news conference Thursday, without giving any date for a rescheduled visit.

An AU delegation led by Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno was expected to arrive to Gabon on Friday to mediate between reelected President Ali Bongo and opposition candidate Jean Ping.

Violence broke out in the tiny Central African state last week after the Electoral Commission announced Bongo had narrowly defeated Ping – former head of the African Union Commission – with 49.85 percent of the vote versus 48.16 percent.

Violence across the oil-producing Central African state has left several people dead and saw thousands arrested.

On Thursday Ping filed a vote fraud complaint to the country’s constitutional court against Bongo’s reelection.