Gabon junta chief wins election

Gabon’s military junta head Brice Oligui Nguema is set to become the new president, following this weekend’s elections, as per Interior Ministry provisional results.

Oligui Nguema secured 90.35% of the vote, the Interior Ministry said. His main rival, Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze meanwhile took 3.02%.

What do we know about the vote?

The election saw voters flock to polling stations on Saturday, in the first election in five decades not under the rule of the Bongo family, whose reign ended with the 2023 coup led by Oligui Nguema.

The Interior Ministry put the turnout rate at %70.40 a significant increase from last vote’s %56.65. The August 2023 election, dubbed fraudulent by the opposition, had prompted the military ouster of Ali Bongo.

“I hadn’t voted in a long time, but this time, I saw a ray or something that made me go out and vote,” 58-year-old Catholic Olivina Migombe told the French AFP news agency while en route to church on Sunday.

Who is Oligui Nguema?

During the election campaign, Oligui Nguema vowed to diversify Gabon’s oil-reliant economy and promote agriculture, industry and tourism. Under the slogan “We Build Together,” he promised to crackdown on corruption associated with the Bongo rule.

The junta chief even took off his military uniform in an effort to shed his military strongman image.

Despite his promises and the large support he has received in the vote, critics remind of Oligui Nguema’s own ties to the Bongo family. He served as aide-de-camp to Ali Bongo’s father Omar Bongo, whose presidency extended over four decades and only ended with his death in 2009.

Oligui Nguema should serve a seven-year term, subject to one extension.