Sounds very similar to another situation minus all the media hype: Gabon opposition calls for election recount By REBECCA BLACKWELL (AP) – 1 day ago PORT GENTIL, Gabon — Gabon's main opposition parties on Monday demanded authorities conduct a recount of a disputed election the government said was won by the son of the country's long-ruling president. Fifteen of the 17 candidates who took part in the Aug. 30 vote held a news conference in the capital, Libreville, to voice their concerns about Ali Bongo's victory. They offered no proof, but alleged in a joint statement there had been "serious manipulation." The second- and third-place finishers — opposition leaders Andre Mba Obame and Pierre Mamboundou — were present. It was the first time Mamboundou appeared in public since results were announced Thursday. The group also called for an international commission to investigate postelection violence that centered on Port Gentil, the country's oil hub and second-largest city. Evidence of the several days of chaos was still ubiquitous in Port Gentil. Shopkeepers on Monday swept glass from streets littered with burned-out cars, while hungry residents stood in long lines to buy bread. Torched shops scarred many neighborhoods, and with public services still on hold, trash lay on the roadsides and debris in the street. Still, the city showed signs of recovery on its second day of calm since rioting began Thursday after the government announced Ali Bongo had won the election. He is being accused of rigging the vote to replace his father, Omar Bongo, who died in June after ruling for 41 years. Gas stations reopened for the first time Monday, as did shops selling meat and rice. Residents desperate to buy bread began mobbing bakeries before dawn, waiting up to six hours in lines stretching 150 people long. "Bongo we accepted, but his son, no. We want someone new," said Noelle Mve, a housewife who had been waiting in line for three hours for bread and still had 100 people in front of her. Angry protesters last week torched a police station, markets and the French Consulate. French oil company Total evacuated employees and their families to Libreville. No date has been set for Bongo's inauguration, and many expect the opposition to formally challenge the results. Former Prime Minister Jean Eyeghe Ndong, acting as spokesman for the 16 independent and opposition candidates, has said the election results "were false." The country's top three opposition leaders have said they feared security forces were trying to kill them. The elder Bongo was viewed by many as the father of the nation and although he amassed a fortune, including 66 private bank accounts and more than 45 homes in the names of his immediate family members, he was mostly tolerated and seen as a vestige from another era, when Africa was ruled by autocrats. The special election was called to replace the late president, and many had hoped it would mark the country's first chance at democracy. The elder Bongo ran in multiple elections where he was the only candidate. After intense pressure, he allowed the opposition to run against him and won multiple other elections riddled with irregularities and fraud accusations. His son, nicknamed "Baby Zeus" when he was a child because of his heir apparent status, is seen by critics as a usurper of power. Others, though, say they have little choice but to accept the results "What can we do? He was elected and the court confirmed it," said Daniel Essebe said, a Total oil platform worker who has been idled. "We can't keep not working." The violence "no longer serves a purpose," Essebe said, sitting at a beach-side drinks stand with the oil platform he works on visible just offshore behind him. "The people are suffering. They have no bread, no food." Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gkdcOASO9nPzyCXOdnE5wmPfq0nAD9AINC180
Hey, maybe we choose one side or the other and take over Gabon. I have a friend from Ethiopia who is refugee in the US. His brother has been imprisoned there off and on for opposing the government. He wishes they had enough oil or something so that we would take over and make things right there.
Wow, only one comment. I guess the long list of posters that were "outraged" by what supposedly happened in Iran don't really care about freedom, democracy, and the electoral process across the board. I guess it's more convenient for those people to just pick and choose when they want to apply those ideals and standards. Your silence on the situation in Gabon has demonstrated your hypocrisy. To be fair, I think a lot of it has to do with the US government and corporate media. They dictate what actually becomes an issue and what becomes a non-issue. It seems the corporate media in the West in conjunction with their governments don't really have an agenda against Gabon or interest in demonizing the country, which is why Iran received wall to wall coverage and this has received really no coverage. It also goes to show that average people in the West are not really free thinkers. They allow the government and corporate media to set the debate and to tell them what is actually an "issue" and what is not. Thank you for confirming my preconceived notions.
Way to assume that you know how EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the Western hemisphere thinks. Perhaps we are preoccupied with the problems we are facing in the U.S. That doesn't mean we don't care. Perhaps we aren't as focused on Gabon as we are on Iran because Iran is a direct threat to (and almost daily issues threats to) the U.S. That doesn't mean we don't care. Perhaps there was nothing to debate here, since the situation is a very obvious case of political corruption. That doesn't mean we don't care. Things are very rarely as black-and-white as we see them. Methinks you need to slow your roll a bit.
If you don't consider a nation that is violating UN resolutions, is aiming to develop nuclear weapons, has stated the US is their enemy, has direct associations with terrorist groups, and has trampled the Democratic will of their people to essentially install a false President to be a direct threat, who DO you consider a direct threat to the US?
Actually, I thought about replying to you given that your defense of the Iranian election seems even more dubious and embarrassing now than it did a few months ago, but I decided to let it drop. Now, you're trying to salvage some Kwame Points by harping on the utterly uninteresting and conventional notion, that a small, low profile west african country of relatively low geostrategic significance, gets less media coverage or political attention than a high profile, large middle eastern country of high strategic significance. It might not be right in your opinion, but it's generally the way things are and always will be. It's certainly not a really good place for you to claim a victory after playing the "HYPOCRISY AT ITS FINEST" card. If you believe so, there are many other similar battles to fight for you Kwame. The colllege football world has been abuzz about Oklahoma after its troubles in the season opener last weekend.. Meanwhile, Texas Southern was upended by longtime SWAC doormat Prarie View A&M on Saturday and there has been nary a peep in the CFB press. HYPOCRISY AT ITS FINEST, don't you agree? I mean the TSU players are probably as devastated by their opening loss as are the Oklahoma players, and they certainly work and try as hard as the Oklahoma players do. But nobody seems to care about them...
True hypocrisy at its finest. I turned on College Gameday, a nary a peep from Corso and Herbstreit on said PVU - TSU game.
What about democracy and the electoral process in general? Do they only matter when it comes to Iran? What about the trampling of the Democratic will of the people of Gabon to essentially install a false President? What about the US sponsored dictatorship that has ruled Egypt since 1981? I think you're bias. People were clamoring so much about democracy, human rights, and the electoral process in that Iran thread that I thought they actually cared about these things as issues. I guess I was wrong. Israel does a lot worse to the Palestinian people than Iran did, but I don't see the same type of wall to wall coverage of their atrocities. In Nigeria you routinely have over 100 people dead due to electoral violence, but it never makes the news here even though Nigeria meets all of your requirements for receiving news coverage. The 2007 elections in Kenya seem to have been rigged but again no real coverage of that here. Why don't you just admit that the corporate media has an agenda against certain countries and strives to demonize them and takes their cue from the government, and most people buy into that?
Kwame, nobody is responding to this because we all know what your shtick is and nobody wants to participate.
What are your thoughts on the situation in Gabon or do you not care and only pay attention when the government and corporate media tell you something is important?
Violating UN resolutions and having nuclear weapons does not make a threat to the US. See Israel for example. The US is the enmey of many countries and vice versa. By most accounts the US is actually subsidizing opposition and perhaps even terrorist groups within Iran. Iran is not doing the same. Our missiles can hit them; their's can't hit us. Of course we have nukes they don't. Only neo-cons say they are on the verge. Been there done that. As Dubya said fooled you once shame on you etc. The US has associations with terrorist groups. Read some news. Trampling the will of people in Iran or Gabon does not make a direct threat o the US. Installing a false president is not a direct threat. Don't fall for neo-con propaganda again.
Weak comeback. I noticed you did not state why installing a false president was a direct threat to the US and my response to your other weak points. The United States is the world's strongerst nation. It spends roughly as much on weaponry and the military as the rest of the world combined. It is even stronger than that implies as our weapon's technology is way ahead of anyone else's. Certainly a feeble third world reginal power like Iran. When you are tha powerful there are few if any direct threats OF ANY MAJOR CONSEQUENCE. Soviet Russia was. Nazi Germany was. One terrorist with a back pack bomb is a direct threat to the US or at least a particular train or whatever in the US. Over imperials spending like we engage in now is a direct or pretty obvious indirect and serious threat to the US. See the history of top-dog imperialist powers. Haven't you learned anything from Bush and Iraq?
I'm still waiting for an answer to my question. If you're not going to respond to my questions, why would I answer your posts? So, again, is your answer that we have no direct threats? Do you consider Al Qaeda a threat to the US?
Major you played the no response card first. Despite that I did respond. To repeat, One terrorist with a back pack, Al Qaeda or otherwise, is a direct threat. NOT OF MAJOR CONSEQUENCE on a certain level. Not worth a cold war with Iran or other major countries unnecessarily. Not worth spending say $hundred billion a year like we do in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now you try again. Violating UN resolutions Why a direct threat to the US? A country having nuclear weapons. .Why a direct threat to the US? Trampling the will of people in Iran or Gabon Why a direct threat to the US? Installing a false president. Why a direct threat to the US? Have you learned nothing from being fooled by Bush on Iraq?.
That's a cool link. What are your thoughts on Gabon or do you not care because the corporate media in conjunction with the government hasn't made it into an issue? I'm leaning towards the latter in your case, because it's what I expect from a guy who supports and defends Israel in an unquestioned manner no matter how many innocent Palestinians they kill. Ask yourself why you've heard so much about Darfur, but know very little about what's going in Kivu even though 10 times as many people have died in eastern Congo for the same reasons as those that have perished in Sudan.
