The small African nation of Gabon is voting on Saturday in its first govt elections since a navy coup in 2023 ended the 50-year dynastic rule of the Bongo political household.
Brice Clotaite Oligui Nguema, coup leader-turned-transition president, is the principle candidate amongst 4 rivals and is extensively anticipated to win the elections, regardless of controversial reforms he has put into place that specialists say had been tailor-made to make him eligible for the vote.
Positioned in West-central Africa, on the Atlantic coast, Gabon is wealthy in extractives like crude oil. The nation, with a inhabitants of two.2 million, can be a part of the very important Congo Basin and boasts hundreds of thousands of acres of rainforest replete with forms of plant and animal species.
Nevertheless, these pure assets haven’t translated into any significant distribution of wealth, as one household and a small political elite have dominated the nation for the previous 5 a long time. The opposition is weak, specialists say; the press is essentially toothless; and Gabonese are distrustful of politicians.
Positioned proper on the equator, Gabon’s lingua franca is French, and native languages embrace Fang, Mbere and a number of other others. Libreville, the breezy coastal capital, is the most important metropolis, adopted by the port city of Port-Gentil.
Right here’s what to know in regards to the vote:
Normal view of the Mont-Bouet market in Libreville on April 8, 2025. Gabon is voting Saturday to elect its future president 19 months after the August 2023 coup that overthrew the Bongo dynasty and introduced Normal Brice Oligui Nguema, the clear favorite, to energy (Daniel Beloumou Olomo/AFP)
When is the vote — and the way did Gabon get right here?
The presidential vote might be held within the nation’s 9 provinces on Saturday, April 12, from 7:30am to 6pm native time (06:30-17:00 GMT).
Campaigns started on March 29 and can finish on April 11. Voting is obligatory for adults.
The election is being held a number of months earlier than an August 2025 deadline the navy initially introduced after the August 30, 2023, coup that ended the rule of former President Ali Bongo Ondimba (2009 – 2023).
The coup, a part of a wave of navy takeovers on the continent, occurred on the identical day the outcomes of presidential elections had been launched. Ondimba was declared the winner with 60 % of the vote for a 3rd time period. The opposition, led by Albert Ondo Ossa of the Alternate Get together, disputed the elections.
Ondimba took over after the demise of President Omar Bongo, his father (1967-2009). Between them, the father-son duo dominated Gabon for 56 years.
Legislative elections haven’t been introduced. Presently, the bicameral homes are staffed with representatives appointed by the navy authorities.
Who’s operating?
4 candidates, all male, have been accredited by the electoral school.
All are operating independently. That’s as a result of the candidates wish to distance themselves from the previous governing Gabonese Democratic Get together (PDG), Douglas Yates, a professor on the American Graduate Faculty in Paris, informed Al Jazeera. The PDG has been in energy since 1967 with little opposition and represents the one really established social gathering.
Gabon Transitional President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema gestures on the Stade de l’Amitie in Libreville on March 29, 2025, through the opening rally of his electoral marketing campaign (Nao Mukadi/AFP)
Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema (50): As head of the Royal Guard, Nguema led the coup that overthrew former President Ali Bongo, who can be his cousin, on August 30, 2023.
The navy basic beforehand served as aide-de-camp to Omar Bongo earlier than he was posted abroad to the embassies in Morocco and Senegal. He thereafter returned to guide the elite Royal Guard that protects the president, a submit he saved till seizing energy.
Following the coup, Nguema promised handy over to a civilian authorities inside two years. He has been praised for shifting quickly in the direction of that transition versus navy authorities counterparts within the West African international locations of Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Guinea. He’s additionally managed to keep up ties with Gabon’s former colonial chief, France, whereas the others have actively lower ties with France.
A brand new structure affirming strict two-term limits was handed following a November referendum.
Nguema is promising to “raise” and rework Gabon economically. He has cleaned up his navy picture because the coup, sporting suave fits and T-shirts in his packed, vibrant marketing campaign rallies. In a single, he was seen moonwalking on stage to loud applause from his supporters.
Alain Claude Bilie-By-Nze (57): In a rustic the place the opposition has traditionally been weak attributable to a long time of elections extensively considered as rigged, Bilie-By-Nze poses the most important problem to Nguema.
The profession politician, in contrast to lots of his extra elite counterparts, comes from a low-income background. In 2015, he entered politics and went on to serve in a number of ministerial positions underneath Ali Bongo. He was prime minister till the 2023 coup.
Backed by his Collectively for Gabon political group, Bilie-By-Nze has chosen a low-key door-to-door marketing campaign within the lead-up to the election. He has tried to underplay his function within the earlier authorities – even criticising the previous ruling PDG social gathering, which he was part of till 2023. His guarantees of “one other Gabon” embrace a deal with city renewal, higher medical health insurance and total financial progress.
Nevertheless, specialists say it’s powerful for a lot of voters to belief him.
“Regardless of his efforts to distance himself from his previous, all people is aware of that he was the final prime minister of Ali Bongo, and subsequently is tarnished,” Yates stated.
A voter casts his poll at a polling station throughout Gabon’s referendum in Libreville, on November 16, 2024 (Nao Mukadi/AFP)
Stephane Germain Iloko Boussengui: The medical physician, popularly often known as Iloko, was as soon as a spokesperson for the previous ruling PDG social gathering earlier than its downfall within the coup. He shaped the Collectively for Gabon group with By-Nze, however the two males clashed, resulting in Iloko’s exit in March.
His rallies are vibrant: In a single marketing campaign occasion in Libreville, Iloko wore conventional wrappers and danced along with his supporters, who sported T-shirts along with his photographs on them.
Regardless of his political previous, Iloko claimed to be a “candidate for the folks oppressed for 56 years” in an interview with native publication L’Union.
He claimed he tried to proper issues up to now authorities however was typically shut down. Now, he’s promising to supply jobs and construct roads and faculties, significantly in rural areas. He additionally needs to cut back authorities spending and improve lecturers’ welfare. As a staunch critic of the navy authorities, Iloko has referred to as for the institution of an unbiased electoral fee, saying the brand new structure established in November grants the president an excessive amount of energy.
Joseph Lapensee Essingone (53): A technocrat, Essingone is a director on the nation’s Directorate of Taxes. Educated in Gabon and France, he has introduced himself as a brand new face in politics with no ties to the contaminated previous administrations.
Essingone says he needs to “rupture” the present political system and usher in financial reforms. He has promised an finish to the mismanagement of assets and dangerous governance if elected.
A tailor holds a bit of cloth bearing the effigy of Gabon’s presidential candidate, Brice Oligui Nguema, on the Mont-Bouet market in Libreville on April 8, 2025 (Daniel Beloumou Olomo/AFP)
A continuation of the Bongo regime?
Nguema is poised to win the elections, analysts agree.
His supporters have praised him for taking steps in the direction of civilian rule, together with:
Final April, he referred to as for a one-month “Inclusive Nationwide Dialogue” that included civil society and diaspora members as one of many steps to return to civilian rule.
He has overseen the writing of a brand new structure that affirms strict two-term limits. Earlier than the elections, Nguema has additionally touted infrastructure initiatives he has launched into since changing into the chief: The development of greater than 1,400 kilometres (870 miles) of latest roads and the distribution of greater than 400 taxi vehicles to folks to generate employment.
Nevertheless, his critics are fast to level out that Nguema stays a part of the identical institution that has dominated Gabon for many years and reportedly additionally reaped wealth from these ties.
They argue that the Nationwide Dialogue largely included navy delegates.
His transitional cupboard has additionally included some Bongo-era officers, critics additional level out, and Ali Bongo’s PDG has endorsed his candidature.
Whereas Gabonese guidelines don’t enable transitional presidents to run for workplace, the brand new structure handed in November allowed that. Critics say it was designed for Nguema to run, though it barred some established opposition leaders attributable to age necessities.
The structure additionally transferred the coordination of elections to the Ministry of Inside as a substitute of an unbiased fee.
Supporters collect on the Stade de l’Amitie in Libreville on March 29, 2025, through the opening rally of the electoral marketing campaign of Gabon Transitional President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema (Nao Mukadi)
“As we’ve seen with different navy seizures of energy in Africa in recent times, these transitions are accompanied by declining ranges of civil liberties, political participation and transparency,” analyst Hany Wahila of the United States-based Africa Heart for Strategic Research informed Al Jazeera.
“Those that’ve criticised the navy regime in Gabon have been the goal of intimidation. What we’re seeing, subsequently, resembles extra a continuation of the present unequal course of quite than progress,” she added.
Nonetheless, the truth that Nguema has moved ahead on his election guarantees and kickstarted infrastructure growth is progress, Yates of the American Graduate Faculty in Paris stated. The choice, Yates stated, would have saved Gabon caught.
“His most evident high quality is that, in contrast to the younger man who was being groomed to inherit the Bongo dynastic fortune, Oligui Nguema truly lives in Gabon,” Yates stated.
He was referring to Ali Bongo’s London-based first son, 33-year-old Noureddin Bongo, who’s presently underneath home arrest in Gabon on costs of treason and fraud, alongside along with his mom and French nationwide, Sylvia Bongo. Nguema’s new structure has barred folks of twin nationality from operating for the presidency, a transfer many consider is aimed on the Bongo inheritor. Ali Bongo himself was launched from detention shortly after the coup and stays within the capital.
Gabon’s democracy might but be younger, however it’s on its approach, Yates added.
“So far as being a ‘true democracy’, I favor to measure that idea on an ordinal scale from ‘extra’ to ‘much less’ democracy. Right here, the measurement has improved,” he stated.
What else?
Outcomes might be introduced inside two weeks of the vote.
Analysts say the chance of a “free and truthful” election in Gabon is dim attributable to its historical past of vote rigging.
There are additionally considerations about violence. In 2016, opposition protests broke out after Ali Bongo was introduced the winner.
In 2023, the coup occurred as tensions started to rise within the nation, though violence had not damaged out.
