An overnight curfew remained in force in the oil hub of Port Gentil after Thursday's attacks on the French oil firm Total and U.S. oil services firm Schlumberger, as well as former colonial power France's consulate there.
French soldiers, of which around 1,000 are stationed in Gabon, intervened without shooting to free some French nationals who were briefly trapped by demonstrators, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
"It is calm now ... there is evidence of pillage from yesterday," Port Gentil resident Guiroger Ragoula told Reuters.
"People are inspecting the damage from last night. The 'Grand Village' market was looted and burned. Many shops have been looted."
Port Gentil bore the brunt of the violence but there were also clashes in the capital Libreville after the interior minister said on Thursday that Ben Bongo had won the race to replace his father, Omar Bongo, who died in June after nearly 42 years in power.
A Reuters witness said Libreville was calm on Friday, with residents slowly starting to go back to work or shopping in the market after most spent the previous day keeping off the streets during sporadic clashes.
Bongo's nearest rivals in the poll were former interior minister Andre Mba Obame and veteran opposition figure Pierre Mamboundou, who each secured just over 25 percent of the vote. Bongo won 41.7 percent.
Both Obame and Mamboundou claimed to have won, and accused Ben Bongo of rigging the election to impose what they call a Bongo "monarchy" on the central African country.
Court Challenge?
Some observers say a legal challenge is likely, but the opposition has so far given no indication it is ready to mount action in the courts.
"The contest is over. There are methods of appealing. The Gabonese people must not be held hostage," Ben Bongo told the French newspaper Le Monde.
French Secretary of State for Cooperation Alain Joyandet said election observers had seen only minor irregularities.
Observers and financial markets have played down the risk of major instability in Gabon -- rare among sub-Saharan countries in that it has a Eurobond -- but a degree of short-term unrest in the immediate aftermath of the results was expected given the breadth of opposition to Bongo.
"It appears highly likely that there will be a legal challenge to the election," Standard Bank analyst Michael Hugman said. "There is then a risk that this process drags on, creating medium-term uncertainty about the political outlook, and potentially increasing the pressure on Ali Ben Bongo to trade off reduced fiscal discipline for greater political support."
Gabon's government said it would immediately step up security after the post-poll violence.
Omar Bongo's long rule brought stability and prosperity to a volatile part of the continent, but not without accusations that he had used petrodollars to enrich himself at the expense of his people.
Analysts say the fact that a majority of Gabonese actually voted against Ben Bongo, and that Gabon's oil reserves are dwindling, will mean that the new president is likely to try to form a government that can command a broad consensus.
