Ali Bongo Ondimba, son of Gabon's late strongarm leader, was sworn in as president on Friday nearly two months after his hotly disputed election victory.
Gabon opposition leaders insist the August 30 election which brought Bongo to power was rigged and say they will fight what they call attempts to smother democracy in the important oil-producing country.
"I swear to devote my energies to the good of the Gabonese people, with the aim of ensuring its well-being and protecting it from all harm, to respect and defend the constitution and the state of law, conscientiously to fulfil my duties and to be fair towards eveybody. I swear it," Bongo said.
The presidents of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Mali, Togo and Benin were among foreign leaders who watched as Bongo swore to "devote all my energy to the good of the Gabonese people."
"I want a Gabon free of corruption and injustice. I want a Gabon where the elites circulate and are renewed," Bongo said in his inaugural speech. "I want a Gabon where justice is at the service of everyone."
The speech was met with thunderous applause. Numerous observers contend that corruption is a considerable setback to the economy and to the development of a nation still rich in oil and manganese.
The election followed the death in June of Bongo's father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled the former French colony on west Africa's equatorial coast for 41 years.
Bongo swore the oath wearing a black suit with a white shirt and red scarf, with his right hand raised and his left on the constitution. His oath of office was hailed with honorary cannon fire.
One of his tasks will be to maintain the ethnic balance that his father deftly juggled in a nation where the news that he had won the election led to riots September 3 in the oil hub of Port Gentil.
The uprisings claimed three lives, according to the government, but the opposition says that at least five people were killed. Some campaigned with the slogan "Anything But Ali," to express their objection to power being kept in the family.
Omar Bongo skilfully used the tribal patchwork in Gabon to avoid dissent and jealousies and his relationship with France was long very close. But the last months of his reign were overshadowed by reports of corruption and media investigation of properties the Bongo family owned in France.
"Respect for our traditions imposes balances on us, but excellence, competence and work count for more than the geographical and political considerations," Ali Bongo said.
Bongo was sworn in after the constitutional court on Monday upheld his victory at the elections, which was challenged by nine other candidates and by a civilian party who claimed fraud at the polls.
The ex-minister of the interior, Andre Mba Obama, and a traditional foe of the Bongo regime, Pierre Mamboundou, both claimed to have won the August 30 vote.
The constitutional court did a recount and gave Ali Bongo 41.79 percent of the votes, ahead of Mamboundou (25.64 percent) and Mba Obame (25.33 percent). In the initial count, Mba Obame was slightly ahead of Mamboundou.
Source: AFP Global Edition
