The move sets the stage for a protracted dispute over the election, as President Ali Bongo Ondimba also has declared victory. The official election result, announced on Wednesday afternoon, gave Mr Bongo a second seven-year term with 49.8% of the vote to Mr Ping's 48.2% - a margin of 5,594 votes. The constitutional court must finalize provisional results, which came a day later than expected

Around 1 a.m. Thursday, soldiers in green berets identifying them as the presidential guard shot live rounds during an attack on Ping's opposition headquarters, injuring at least 20 people, according to Paul Marie Gondjout, an opposition electoral representative who was there. The Boulevard Triomphal, home to Gabon's parliament, was covered in burnt-out cars and lined with torched buildings on Thursday, reports the AFP news agency. Gabon election: Bongo v Ping

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Mr Bongo took office in 2009 after an election marred by violence

He succeeding his father Omar Bongo who had come to power in 1967 and was Africa's longest serving leader

Veteran diplomat Mr Ping had served as chair of the African Union

He had been a close ally of Omar Bongo and had been his foreign minister

He had two children with Omar Bongo's daughter, Pascaline

Mr Ping has called for voting figures from each polling station to be made public. European Union observers criticized what they called a "lack of transparency," and the EU called for electoral officials to publish results from all polling stations. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged political leaders and their supporters "to refrain from further acts that could undermine the peace and stability of the country."
Military helicopters bomb the headquarters of Union of Forces for Change, according to opposition leader Jean Ping, killing at least two people. Internet is also cut in the capital, Libreville.