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Oil-rich The west African nation of Gabon said Tuesday that it would hold presidential, legislative, and local elections on August 26. President Ali Bongo Ondimba is expected to easily defeat a fractured opposition.
Bongo has not officially said whether he will run for office again, but it is commonly believed that he will. In both houses of parliament, his dominant Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) maintains resounding majorities.
In 2009, 64-year-old Bongo succeeded his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled the nation for 41 years.
In 2016, the president received just 5,500 more votes than his opponent Jean Ping, who alleged that the election had been rigged.
In 2018, Bongo had a stroke and spent months rehabilitating, which led the opposition to doubt his suitability to lead the country.
The opposition refers to the Bongo family as a “dynastic power” because they have already dominated the nation for 55 years.
However, the opposition has been unable to settle on a single presidential candidate, allowing about 15 hopefuls to declare their candidatures.
The Gabonese parliament decided to change the constitution in April, cutting the president’s seven-year term to five.
Some opposition members opposed the modifications, particularly the removal of the two-round voting process, for “facilitating the re-election” of Bongo.
Following the most recent modifications to the constitution in 2018, which instituted two rounds of voting, the amendments align all mandates at five years and return all elections to single-round balloting.
Wealthy
Due in large part to its wealth in resources like oil, wood, and manganese as well as its comparatively small population of 2.3 million, Gabon is one of the richest nations in Africa in terms of GDP per capita.
It ranks among the top sub-Saharan African producers of black gold, which accounts for 38.5 percent of its GDP and 70.5 percent of its export earnings.
Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze was appointed as prime minister in January by President Bongo, who also announced the formation of a new government.
The president’s close friend Bilie-By-Nze, 55, has served in a number of ministerial positions since 2006.
Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda, the previous premier, was chosen to serve as vice president. Although there is no provision for an interim president, the vice president’s job is to “assist” the head of state.
She was the first woman to serve as prime minister of Gabon and a former defence minister as well as mayor of the nation’s capital, Libreville.
