Gabon: Election of Ali-Ben Bongo Ondimba - full text
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A coalition of opposition candidates in the Aug. 30 presidential election in Gabon had asked citizens to observe a national strike on Sept. 14-16, but workers failed to heed the call. The opposition group had wanted to denounce what they described as an "electoral coup" by the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), whose candidate Ali-Ben Bongo Ondimba had been declared the winner in the presidential election.
Ali-Ben Bongo, son of the late President Omar Bongo, who had died in June after over 40 years in power, had been declared president on Sept. 3. However, opposition candidates claimed electoral irregularities and said that Ali-Ben had used the state machinery in his campaign and had excluded his opponents from the main state media. Initially, Ali-Ben's victory had been met with civil disturbance, particularly in Libreville (the capital) and the commercial hub of Port-Gentil, where a night-time curfew was imposed.
Immediate Context
President Omar Bongo, Africa's longest-serving leader died in a hospital in Spain on June 8 aged 73. It had been reported in late May that Bongo was "seriously ill", although Gabonese officials had refused to acknowledge that the president was ailing. Some reports said that Bongo had never fully recovered from the recent death of his wife, dith Lucie Bongo Ondimba, the daughter of President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of Congo.
In mid-July Ali-Ben, then minister of national defence, was selected by the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) as its candidate to contest the forthcoming presidential election. Ali-Ben, aged 50, was thought to have been his father's groomed successor. However, the PDG's decision to support Ali-Ben led to tension within the party and a number of high-level defections, including veteran former interior minister Andre Mba Obame, who announced that he would contest for the presidency as an independent. The traditional opposition remained divided and could not compete financially with Ali-Ben's campaign.
The presidential election was held on Aug. 30, but the Electoral Commission did not declare the results until Sept. 3. According to the official results, Ali-Ben won 47.7 per cent of the vote, gaining most of his support in the east; Obame, with support in Libreville and the north, won 25.9 per cent; and veteran opposition leader Pierre Mamboundou, with his support base in the south, won 25.2 per cent.
Days before the declaration, all three of the presidential forerunners -- Ali-Ben, Obame and Mamboundou -- had declared themselves the winner, which only served to rouse expectations even more. Hence, when Ali-Ben was announced the winner on Sept. 3 the tension had been stretched to breaking point and opposition supporters took to the streets in Libreville and Port-Gentil and the security forces responded with tear-gas to disperse the crowds. Throughout the waiting period for results, opposition leaders had decried the feared outcome in advance, saying the vote had been rigged. However, African Union (AU) observers said that the election had met legal standards, although they did acknowledge that some electoral officials had not managed to "master" the voting process.
Visibly, some rioters were incensed by the idea that France had interfered in the election, as crowds in Port-Gentil reportedly chanted "death to the whites". Rioters set fire to the French Consulate in the city and threw rocks at people they thought were French, French nationals, around 10,000 in number, were advised by their government to stay indoors. Gabon was sub-Saharan Africa's fourth-biggest oil producer and the French company Total had important interests in the country and its facilities were also attacked.
Upon being declared victor on Sept. 3, Ali-Ben told the television network TeleAfrica -- owned by his family -- that he wanted to be "president of all Gabonese". However, analysts were agreed that whilst he had a great deal of political experience, having served as foreign and defence minister, Ali-Ben lacked the charisma of his father and faced a difficult challenge ahead in keeping the country unified in the face of mounting opposition to his leadership. The opposition, as always, remained divided and failed to muster support for a national strike on Sept. 14-16 to support their plans to petition the Constitutional Court over alleged electoral irregularities.
Reaction and Outlook
The relatively rare violence sparked by the election results, indicated that the Gabonese were uncomfortable with both dynastic politics and with France's continued influence on the country. Commentators noted that, following his father's death, Ali-Ben had visited Paris for talks with President Nicholas Sarkozy, leading to opposition claims that France had covertly supported the continuation of the Bongo dynasty in its former colony. On Sept. 8 Sarkozy sent a congratulatory message to President Bongo, in which he said that the election had "provided an opportunity to stress the existence of a common challenge, that of overhauling the close and balanced partnership relations between our two countries".
France had a vested interest in maintaining close relations with a stable Gabon -- a country replete with natural wealth from oil, timber, uranium and manganese. French capital was well penetrated into the economy and Gabon was one of the leading recipients of French foreign direct investment in Africa.
Omar Bongo's long period of rule had brought stability and prosperity to a volatile part of the continent, but not without accusations that he had used petrodollars to enrich himself at the expense of his people. Crucially, Gabon's oil reserves were reportedly dwindling, which increased pressure on the new president to try to form a government that could command a broad consensus. In the short term, however, a prolonged challenge to the election result by the opposition could reduce Ali-Ben's capacity to form any form of effective government.
Whilst observers and financial markets played down the risk of major instability in Gabon rare among sub-Saharan countries in that it had a Eurobond a degree of short-term unrest in the immediate aftermath of the results was expected given the breadth of opposition to Bongo. Radio France Internationale, the French state-funded public broadcaster, reported on Sept. 9 that Port-Gentil, the country's oil hub and commercial capital, was slowly returning to normal.
Historial Context
Palaeolithic and Neolithic artefacts have been discovered in Gabon, but the immigration of Bantu-speaking peoples, the present inhabitants, is probably contemporary with the early Christian era. The Fang ethnic group, who are now the predominant community in Gabon, arrived in the late 18th century, attracted by the opportunities for trade with Europeans on the coast. Portuguese explorers discovered the Gabon estuary in 1483 and were soon followed by French, British and Dutch slave traders. France secured treaties with Mpongwe chiefs in 1838-42 and from 1843 to 1886 Gabon came under French naval administration. In 1886 Gabon became a French colony, administered as part of French Equatorial Africa. The colony was divided between concessionary companies in 1898. These companies treated conscripted native labourers ruthlessly but, despite widespread protests, the concessions were not abolished until 1930.
In 1958 Gabon became an autonomous republic within the French community. It moved to full independence in 1960 and Leon M'Ba was elected as the country's first president in 1961. In January 1964 M'ba dissolved the legislature, promising new elections the following month, but the military deposed him. France intervened, under the terms of a 1960 defence agreement, and M'ba was reinstated as president.
When M'ba died in November 1967 his vice president, Bernard-Albert Bongo, acceded to the presidency. In March 1968 Bongo instituted single-party government through the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) and the party secured the first of many overwhelming victories in legislative elections held in February 1969. Whilst there was some opposition to single party rule and the government's economic policies, which afforded foreign investors considerable benefits, the country was politically stable throughout the 1970s. Influenced strongly by Libyan leader Col Moammer al-Kadhafi, Bongo broke off relations with Israel in September 1973, became a Muslim and changed his forename to Omar. Nonetheless, the government retained close relations with France and the West.
The worst anti-government rioting of President Bongo's rule erupted in Libreville and Port Gentil in May 1990 following the poisoning of an opposition politician. President Bongo was forced to introduce political reforms and in June 1991 a new constitution was introduced which formalised the multiparty system.
Facing opposition candidates for the first time since taking office in 1967, Bongo was narrowly re-elected president in December 1993, but the result was disputed by the opposition and resulted in months of political unrest. An agreement between the government and opposition was negotiated in Paris in September 1994 whereby a transitional coalition government was to be installed, with local government elections scheduled to take place in 12 months and legislative elections six months later; also, the electoral code was to be revised. In a referendum in July 1995, voters overwhelmingly approved the full implementation of the constitutional changes envisaged in the Paris Accords. When legislative elections were held in December 1996, the culmination of the democratic timetable established by the Paris Accords, they result in another landslide victory for the ruling PDG. Constitutional amendments were approved in July 2003 to allow Bongo to stand for re-election an unlimited number of times. In November 2005, Bongo, by now Africa's longest-serving leader, was re-elected for a further seven-year term.
