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Gabon recalls envoy to France over Manuel Valls' remarks

Xinhua, January 19, 2016 Adjust font size:

Gabon has recalled its ambassador to France for consultation following remarks made by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls that Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba was not validly elected in 2009.

The move was announced late Sunday on Gabon's national television by Interior Minister Pacome Moubelet Boubeya.

"Was Ali Bongo elected in 2009?" French comedian Jeremy Ferrari asked Valls on a French television station over the weekend. The prime minister responded: "No. Not as we were told!"

Valls' remarks irritated the Gabonese authorities, Boubeya said in a live broadcast on the national television.

Boubeya said he was "shocked and saddened" by the words yet the two countries were "enjoying excellent relations."

It is not the first time France has disputed Ali Bongo's election in 2009.

In a documentary titled "Francafrique: 50 Years Under the Seal of Secrecy" produced in 2010 by Patrick Benquet, French analysts expressed reservations about the conduct of the 2009 elections in the former French colony.

"The results were reversed in favour of Ali Bongo," one of the advisors on African affairs at the Elysee told the documentary.

The Gabonese government denies the allegations in the documentary. Endit