By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Gabon will go to the polls on August 26 to elect a new President and members of the Parliament, an election where the incumbent President Ali Bongo Ondimba is widely believed to defeat the divided opposition to elongate his stay in office.
Although Bongo has not indicated interest to seek re-election, he is largely expected to join the presidential race.
Bongo, 64, in 2009 took over from his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, who stayed in power for 41 years. His son and successor had spent 14 years since he took over.
His Influential party, the Gabonese Democratic Party holds strong majorities in both houses of parliament.
The president was narrowly re-elected in 2016, with just 5,500 more votes than rival Jean Ping, who claimed the election was compromised.
Leader of the oil-rich West African country, Bongo suffered a stroke in 2018 and spent months on the sidelines recovering, leaving the opposition to question his fitness to run the nation.
The Bongo family has ruled the country for 55 years already and is branded a “dynastic power” by the opposition.
But the opposition has failed to agree on a single candidate for the presidential election, leaving some 15 candidates to announce their intentions to stand.
In April, the Gabonese parliament voted to amend the constitution and reduce the president’s term from seven to five years.
The amendments bring all mandates into line at five years and make all elections single-round ballots again after the last changes to the constitution in 2018 set up two rounds of voting.
In January, President Bongo announced a change of prime minister, appointing Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze to form a government.
Bilie-By-Nze, 55, is a close ally of the president and has held several ministerial jobs since 2006.
The previous premier, Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda was appointed vice president, whose role is to “assist” the head of state, though there is no provision to be interim president.
A former defence minister and mayor of the capital Libreville, she became prime minister in July 2020 and was the first woman to head a Gabonese government.