Gabon’s leader to Gabon, Brice Oligui Nguema, is trying to consolidate his power while the Central African Central Petrolo holder holds the presidential elections on Saturday that analysts expect to be unilateral.
Nineteen months after overturning President Ali Bongo, whose family ruled Gabon for over half a century, Nguema, 50 years old, presented himself as an agent of change that repressed the old corrupt guard.
In the capital, Libraville, the participation seemed greater than the 2023 elections that fell the coup, when Bongo was appointed winner of a third term in a cause that the opposition denounced as fraudulent.
By voting in a school in the city center, Nguema said that the external line was proof that “the Gabones recovered trust in the elections”, adding that it was “transparent”.
Crossing the country with a baseball limit with the slogan “we built together”, Nguema promised to diversify the economy dependent on oil and to promote agriculture, industry and tourism in a country where a third of the population lives in poverty.
Nguema is Langers of the father of AI Bongo, Omar Bongo, who was president for over 40 years until his death in 2009.
His main opponent is Alain Claude Bolli di Nze, who was Ali Bongo Prime Minister before the coup d’état of August 2023, the eighth in West and central Africa since 2020.
Nze, 57, voted this Saturday in his hometown, Makokou. In a printing video for his campaign, he expressed concern about the fact that unused electoral cards left in the electoral sections could be used to fill the polls.
Nze tried to distance himself from the Bongo family while questioned the attitude of Nguema to the presidency, telling Reuters this week that the military should “return to their barracks”.
The polls should end at 14h (Brasilia time), with the result scheduled for Sunday. The winner will fulfill a seven -year term, renewable once.
Almost 900,000 voters are recorded to vote in the electoral sections through the densely wooded and just populated country, with about 2.5 million inhabitants. Another 28,000 are recorded to vote abroad.
Gabon’s economy grew by 2.9% in 2024, compared to 2.4% in 2023, in part by infrastructure projects and goods such as oil, manganese and wood, according to the World Bank.
Source: Terra
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