Military leader wins Presidential election

Gabon's military leader General Brice Oligui Nguema, who in 2023 led a coup that ended a near-60-year dynasty, has won Saturday's Presidential election with more than 90% of the vote, provisional results show, reports BBC News. Ahead of the vote, critics argued that the new Constitution and electoral code were designed to give Oligui Nguema a comfortable pathway to the top job. Some opposition heavyweights who could have posed a serious political challenge were excluded from the race. His election victory consolidates his grip on power, nearly two years after he masterminded the demise of President Ali Bongo, whose family had been in power in Gabon since 1967. Oligui Nguema faced seven other candidates, including former Prime Minister Alain Claude Bilie-by-Nze, who served under the Bongo regime, and two stalwarts of the former ruling PDG party, Stéphane Germain Iloko and Alain Simplice Boungouères. More than seven out of 10 registered voters took part in the poll, which the authorities and some observers hailed as signifying the election took place transparently and peacefully. There were complaints of instances of irregularities in the process, however. Oligui Nguema's victory brings him a seven-year mandate and the resources to tackle the corruption and bad governance that characterised the Bongos' time in power. The highly articulate former commander of the elite Republican Guard proved to be very popular among a population relieved to be rid of dynastic rule, promising to rid the country of the ill that had tainted Gabon's image.

Full BBC News report