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Gabon Votes after Bongo Dynasty Falls, Military Leader Leads Race

Politics

Business Honor
12 April, 2025

The first post-coup election sees Nguema favored; voters seek a break from Bongo-era politics.

Gabon is holding its first executive elections since the Bongo political family's 50-year dynastic dominance was overthrown by a military coup in 2023. On Saturday, the country's polls opened at 7 a.m. (06:00 GMT), and thousands of people were reportedly waiting outside polling places throughout Libreville, the metropolis by the sea. There are around a million voters, including about 28,000 who live abroad.

Despite implementing contentious measures that analysts claim were designed to make him eligible to vote, Brice Clotaite Oligui Nguema, the former coup leader who is now transition president, is the front-runner among four contenders and is predicted to win the elections.
The Electoral College has approved four candidates; all of them are men.

Gabon’s presidential election is scheduled for Saturday, April 12, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., following a campaign period from March 29 to April 11. Voting is compulsory. This early election comes months ahead of the initially proposed August 2025 deadline set after the August 2023 coup that ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba, who had claimed a disputed third term. The coup ended 56 years of Bongo family rule, starting with Omar Bongo in 1967. No legislative elections have been announced, and the military currently appoints parliamentary members.

They're all operating on their own. According to Douglas Yates, a professor at the American Graduate School in Paris, this is because the candidates wish to break with the previous ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), he told Al Jazeera. The PDG is the only genuinely established party, having held power since 1967 with little opposition.

Nevertheless, Yates of the American Graduate School in Paris stated that it is progress that Nguema has fulfilled his electoral pledges and sparked the construction of infrastructure. Yates claimed that the other option would have kept Gabon in a bind.