Gen. Brice Oligui Nguema has gained the presidential election within the Central African nation of Gabon, in accordance with provisional outcomes, cementing the navy officer’s maintain on energy after he staged a coup in 2023.
Common Nguema gained with greater than 90 p.c of the votes, the Inside Ministry mentioned on Sunday. His principal opponent, former Prime Minister Alain Claude Bilie-By-Nze, conceded defeat on Monday.
Gabon’s Constitutional Courtroom is predicted to announce official leads to the approaching days, although opponents and analysts have prompt that the election was geared towards Common Nguema’s victory.
Common Nguema is now set to control Gabon for the following seven years, the second chief of a Central African nation to win an election in recent times after grabbing energy by pressure.
The election in Gabon, which suffered no main disruptions in accordance with observers, and Common Nguema’s victory highlights the return to elected energy of males in uniform in West and Central Africa, which has skilled eight coups up to now 5 years.
Mahamat Déby, the present navy chief of Chad, was declared the winner of a presidential contest final yr after he seized energy there in 2021.
A number of different navy officers who staged coups in West Africa over the previous few years have stayed in energy by delaying elections and sustaining prolonged transition guidelines.
Common Nguema, 50, had vowed to relinquish energy after a takeover that ended a decades-long political dynasty. However after his administration adopted a brand new structure and launched a brand new electoral code that allowed navy officers to run in elections, he swapped his uniform for jeans and Air Jordans on the marketing campaign path.
He served as an aide-de-camp to Gabon’s long-ruling autocrat, Omar Bongo, who held energy for 41 years. He was then head of the Republican Guard below Mr. Bongo’s son, Ali Bongo Ondimba, who’s a cousin of Common Nguema’s.
However Common Nguema deposed him in 2023 after 14 years, ending one among Africa’s longest eras of household rule.
Voters praised him for that. “The man overthrew a system that everybody needed to carry down, and for that alone, the overwhelming majority needed to help him,” Sylvie Nguia, an accountant at a telecommunications firm, mentioned on Monday within the capital, Libreville.
Gabon is wealthy in mineral sources and oil, and has one among Africa’s highest incomes per capita. Nevertheless it stays profoundly unequal and its economic system is overly depending on oil, which accounts for 38 p.c of Gabon’s gross home product. Greater than 40 p.c of younger individuals in Gabon are unemployed.
The nation can be among the many world’s most corrupt, in accordance with the watchdog Transparency International — a pattern that preceded Common Nguema’s navy takeover.
Common Nguema has vowed to interrupt away from Gabon’s corrupt political system, although critics level out that he had lengthy been a part of it.
With all political events suspended, each candidate, together with Common Nguema, ran on impartial platforms. However Common Nguema had the state funds to finance his marketing campaign, opponents mentioned.
“If he gained, it’s as a result of he used state tools, helicopters, automobiles, even the navy,” mentioned Yannick Mbina, a taxi driver within the Libreville space who mentioned he had voted for Mr. Bilie-By-Nze.
“I’m ready to see what individuals will acquire with him,” he added. “They’ve chosen to proceed with the Bongo system.”
At the same time as he conceded defeat, Mr. Bilie-By-Nze mentioned on Monday that the election had been “a farce” and complained of “Soviet-style outcomes.”
“Equity was undermined by the imbalance of sources — with one candidate campaigning on the taxpayers’ expense whereas others needed to depend on their private means,” he mentioned.
Analysts say Common Nguema fashioned the election so it may solely profit him. The constitutional reform that allowed him to run for workplace prolonged presidential phrases to seven years and eliminated the position of the prime minister.
The brand new electoral code additionally prevented a distinguished opponent from operating by imposing an age restrict of 70 years for any candidate.
Different observers mentioned that Common Nguema had primarily benefited from the Gabonese individuals’s disenchantment with a long time of misrule. “The individuals had just one want, which was to provide energy to the lads in uniform so one thing would possibly lastly come out of Gabon,” mentioned Fred Kapabi, an impartial political analyst in Libreville.
On Sunday, after the provisional outcomes have been introduced, Common Nguema mentioned the returns left little question over who had gained.
“I’m a captain who is aware of learn how to carry a ship to a protected port,” he mentioned. “You will note how the nation goes to take off.”
Yann Leyimangoye contributed reporting from Libreville, Gabon.
