the board of elections proposes the date of August 26

The Gabonese Elections Council (CGE), responsible for organizing the polls, has proposed Sunday August 26 for the holding of presidential, legislative and local elections in Gabon, a date that the government has yet to ratify.

The head of state, Ali Bongo Ondimba, 64, elected in 2009 on the death of his father Omar Bongo Ondimba, who ruled the country for more than forty-one years, has not yet announced whether he will be or not a candidate. But his all-powerful Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), which largely dominates parliament, has for months called him his “natural candidate” and Mr. Bongo has been conducting an intense tour across the country for two months that leaves little room for doubt.

The opposition, for its part, is advancing for the time being in a very dispersed order, with around fifteen personalities having already announced their intention to run and others, including tenors, who make no secret of it.

If they do not overcome these divisions, the outgoing president appears to be the big favorite in a one-round ballot, which will decide the winner by a relative majority of the votes in this small Central African state rich in particular in its oil.

“The Gabonese Elections Center is today presenting a draft calendar for elections to be held on August 26, in a single round, combining the presidential elections, deputies of the National Assembly and members of the departmental and municipal councils”announced in front of its president, Michel Stéphane Bonda.

“As the law provides, the CGE proposes a timetable which will be submitted to the government. It is up to the latter, by decree taken in the Council of Ministers, to ratify it or not.explained to AFP Nadia Christelle Koye, vice-president of the CGE.

opposition coalition

The deadline for submitting candidacies for the three elections would be July 11 and the official electoral campaign for the presidential election would run from midnight August 11 to midnight August 25, according to the plan.

In 2016, Mr. Bongo was narrowly re-elected, with 5,500 votes ahead of opponent Jean Ping, who denounced a rigged election.

A stroke in October 2018 had left the head of state for many months away from the political scene and part of the opposition continues to question his physical capacity to lead the country. The majority denounces campaigns centered essentially on the health of the Head of State and “without any other program”.

The country has been ruled by the Bongo family for fifty-five years and the opposition regularly denounces a “dynastic power”.

In February a political consultation forum, shunned by the main opposition leaders, led to a modification of the Constitution less than five months before the ballot which notably made it go back to a single round but also reduced the presidential mandate seven to five years old.

To date, 15 to 20 people have publicly announced their intention to run. This is still not the case for some of the fiercest opponents, such as Alexandre Barro Chambrier, of the Rassemblement pour la patrie et la modernité (RPM), former minister of Bongo father and son.

Another important opposition figure, Paulette Missambo, president of the National Union (UN), also Omar Bongo’s minister, does not hide her intentions but has only declared for the time being her candidacy for the within a coalition, Alternance 2023, just like other tenors of the opposition who are part of it.

Gabon is one of the richest countries in Africa in terms of GDP per capita, thanks to its oil, timber and manganese in particular, and a small population, some 2.3 million souls.