Gabon’s military junta leader, Brice Oligui Nguema, has been declared the winner of the presidential election, securing 90.35 percent of the vote, according to provisional results released by the interior ministry on Sunday.
Oligui, who seized power in August 2023, ending the Bongo family’s more than five decades of rule marked by corruption, had pledged to transition the country back to democratic governance.
Earlier on Sunday, Gabon 24 television reported that Oligui was “well ahead” in several of the central African nation’s provinces. The interior ministry’s provisional figures indicated a 70.4 percent voter turnout.
The streets of the capital, Libreville, remained calm the day after the election, a stark contrast to the tensions and unrest that characterized previous elections in 2016 and 2023. “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 reporters, expressing her support for Oligui and her belief in “change this time.”
The newly elected president faces significant challenges, including addressing the country’s crumbling infrastructure, widespread poverty, and substantial debt. “If Oligui is elected president, he will have lots of work to do,” Patrick Essono-Mve, a 48-year-old unemployed technician, told reporters.
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Oligui, who shed his military strongman image and even abandoned his general’s uniform to run for a seven-year term, dominated the campaign. His seven challengers, led by ousted leader Ali Bongo’s former prime minister, Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze, received comparatively little visibility. Critics accuse Oligui of failing to address the years of plunder of Gabon’s vast mineral wealth under the Bongos, whom he served for years.
For the first time, foreign and independent media were permitted to film the ballot count. International observers at polling stations across the country reported no major incidents in their initial assessments.
Approximately 920,000 voters were eligible to cast their ballots at 3,037 polling stations, including 96 located abroad. Early results released by state media CTRI News on Sunday morning showed Oligui winning overwhelmingly in around 30 polling stations, with some reporting 100 percent of the vote in his favor.
© Ripples Nigeria