The African Nation of Gabon is voting in its first executive elections since a military coup in 2023 ended the 50 -year dynastic rule of Bongo’s political family.
The surveys were opened in the country at 7 am (06:00 GMT) on Saturday, with reports of thousands of people queuing outside the electoral plants in Libreville, the coastal capital. Almost a million people, including some, 000 abroad, are registered to vote.
Brice Clotaite Oligui Nguema, president of the coup transition, is the main candidate among four competitors and is expected to win the elections, despite the controversial reforms that he has established that experts, experts, were adapted to doing so eligible for vote.
Located in the center-west of Africa, on the Atlantic coast, Gabon is rich in extracts such as crude oil. The country, with a population of 2.2 million, is also part of the vital basin of the Congo and has millions of tropical jungle acres full of varieties of plant and animal species.
However, these natural resources have not resulted in a significant distribution of wealth, since a family and a small political elite have governed the country during the last five decades. The opposition is weak, experts say; The press is largely without teeth; and the Gaboneses are Dustful or politicians.
Located right in Ecuador, Longua Franca de Gabón is French, and local languages include Fang, Mber and several others. The Libreville capital is the largest city in the country, followed by the port city of Port-Gentil.
This is what you should know about the vote:
When is the vote and how did Gabon here?
- The presidential vote will take place in the nine provinces of the country on Saturday, April 12, from 7 am to 6 pm, local time (06: 00-17: 00 GMT).
- Campaigns beg on March 29 and will end on April 11. Voting is mandatory for adults.
- The election is celebrated several months before a deadline of August 2025 that the army initially announced after the coup d’etat of August 30, 2023 that ended the rule of former President Ali Bongo Ondimba (2009-2023).
- The coup, part of a wave of military acquisitions in the continent, occurred the same day the results of the presidential elections were published. Ondimba was declared winner with 60 percent of the votes for a third term. The opposition, led by Albert in Ossa of the alternative party, played the elections.
- Ondimba took after the death of President Omar Bongo, his father (1967-2009). Among them, the father-son duo ruled Gabon for 56 years.
- The legislative elections have not announced the leg. Currently, bicameral houses have representatives designated by the military government.
Who is running?
Four candidates, all men, have been approved by the Electoral College.
All run independently. This is because the candidates want to distance themselves from the former Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), said Douglas Yates, a professor at the American Graduate School, Al Jazeera. The PDG has been in power since 1967 with little opposition and representatives as the only truly established party.
Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema (50): As head of the Royal Guard, Nguema directed the coup d’etat that defeated former President Ali Bongo, who is also his cousin, on August 30, 2023.
The military general previously served as a camp assistant to Omar Bongo before being sent abroad to the embassies in Morocco and Senegal. Later he returned to lead the Elite Royal Guard that protects the President, a position that he held until he seized power.
After the coup, Nguema promised to deliver to a civil government in two years. He has been praised to quickly advance towards that transition compared to military government homologues in the countries of Western Africa of Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Guinea. He has also achieved the ties of Mintain with the former colonial leader of Gabon, France, while the others have actively cut the ties with France.
A new Constitution was approved that affirms the strict limits of two periods after a November referendum.
Nguema promises to “lift” and transform Gabon economically. He has cleaned his military image from the coup d’etat, with soft costumes and t -shirts in his full and full campaign herds. In one, Moon Walling was seen on stage to strong applause from his followers.
Alain Claude Bilie-By-Nze (57): In a country where the opposition has a weak historical leg due to decades of elections widely seen as manipulated, Bilie-By Nze raises the greatest challenge for Nguema.
The career politician, unlike many of his elite counterparts, comes from a low -income environment. In 2015, the policy entered and went on several ministerial positions under Ali Bongo. It was prime minister until the 2023 coup d’etat.
Backed by his political group together for Gabon, Bilie-By-Nze has chosen a discreet low voltage campaign in the period prior to the elections. He has tried to partner in the previous government: also criticize the former PDG ruling party, of what was part of until 2023. His promises of “Another Gabon” include an approach to the Urban Rewewal, Best Health.
However, experts say it is difficult for many voters to trust him.
“Despite their efforts to distance themselves from their attacks, everyone knows that he was the last minister of Ali Bongo and, therefore, is tarnished,” said Yates.
Stephane Germain Iloko BousSengui: The doctor, popular known as Iloko, once was a spokesman for the former PDG ruling party before his fall in the coup d’etat. They formed the group Together for Gabon with By-Nze, but the two men faced each other, which led to the departure of Iloko in March.
Its manifestations are colorful: in a campaign event in Libreville, Iloko wore traditional wrappers and danced with his followers, who wore t -shirts with his photos on the subject.
Despite his political adjustments, Iloko claimed to be a “candidate for oppressed people for 56 years” in an interview with the local publication L’Anion.
He said he tried to correct things in the last government, but was closed. Now, it promises to provide jobs and build roads and schools, particularly in rural areas. Hello, it also wants to reduce government spending and increase the well -being of teachers. As a firm critic of the military government, Iloko has asked the establishment of an independent electoral commission, saying that the new Constitution established in November gives the President too much power.
Joseph Lapesee Essingone (53): A technocrat, Essingone is director of the country’s management or taxes. Educated in Gabon and France, he has presented his as a new face in politics without links with contaminated administrations.
Essingone says that Hey wants to “break” the current political system and mark the beginning of economic reforms. He has promised the end of poor resource management and bad governance if he is chosen.
A continuation of the Bongo regime?
Nguema is ready to win the elections, analysts agree.
His supporters have praised him for taking measures towards the civil government, which includes:
- Last April, he requested an “National Inclusive Dialogue” of a month that included members of civil society and the diaspora as one of the steps to return to the civil government.
- The writing of a new Constitution that affirms strict limits of two periods has been excessively. Before the elections, Nguema has also promoted infrastructure projects that has been embarked since the leader became: the construction of more than 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) or new roads and the distribution of more than 400 taxis for people to people.
However, their critics have rushed to point out that Nguema remains part of the same surfing that has governed Gabon for decades and, according to reports, also obtained wealth of those ties.
- They argue that the national dialogue largely included military delegates.
- His transition cabinet has also included some officials of the Bongo era, critics point out more, and the PDG of Ali Bongo has supported his candidacy.
- Although Gabonese’s rules do not allow transition presidents to apply for a position, the new Constitution approved in November allowed that. Critics say it was designed for Nguema to work, although he prohibited some established opposition leaders due to age requirements.
- The Constitution also transferred the coordination of the elections to the Ministry of Interior instead of an independent commission.
“As we saw with other military seizures of power in Africa in recent years, thesis transitions are accompanied by decreasing levels of civil liberties, political participation and transparency,” the Wahila analyst customer or the United States based in the United States.
“Those who criticized the military regime in Gabon have been the objective of intimidation. What we are seeing, therefore, resembles more to a continuation of the existing unequal evaluator than progress,” he added.
Even so, the fact that Nguema has advanced in his electoral promises and the development of the initial infrastructure is progress, said Yates of the American Graduate School in Paris. The alternative, said Yates, would have kept Gabon trapped.
“His most obvious quality is that, unlike the young man who was prepared to inherit Bongo’s dynastic fortune, Oligui Nguema lives in Gabon,” Yates said.
He referred to the first son of Ali Bongo in London, Noureddin Bongo, 33, who is currently under the trial of the Chamber in Gabon for charges of betrayal and fraud, along with his mother and his French citizen, Sylvia Bongo. The new Constitution of Nguema has prevented people with dual nationality from running for the presidency, a movement that many believe is aimed at the heir of Bongo. Ali Bongo himself was released from the arrest shortly after the coup d’etat and remains in the capital.
Gabon’s democracy can still be young, but it is on the way, Yates added.
“As for the bee a ‘true democracy’, I prefer to measure that concept on an ordinal scale of a ‘less’ democracy less’. Here, the measurement has improved,” he said.
What else?
- The results will be announced within two weeks of the vote.
- Analysts say that the probability of a “free and fair” choice in Gabon is dim due to its history of voting votes.
- There are also groups about violence. In 2016, opposition protests exploded after Ali Bongo was announced as the winner.
- In 2023, the coup occurred when tensions were put to increase in the country, although violence had not broken.