Elections in Gabon expected to maintain Bongo family's grip on power

Gabon goes to the polls on Saturday for general elections that the ruling party and its leader, President Ali Bongo Ondimba, are once again expected to win. The Bongo family has controlled the country's politics since the 1960s and is determined to hold on to power, as recent intimidation tactics demonstrate.

A Gabonese voter checks the registry at a polling station in Libreville during the 2016 presidential election, on 27 August 2016. © AFP - MARCO LONGARI

The Bongos have ruled Gabon for over 50 years, starting when Omar Bongo became president in 1967. 

His son Ali, 64, has been in power since 2009, when he was declared the winner of a snap presidential election that followed the death of his father.

He was narrowly re-elected in 2016, with just 5,500 more votes than rival Jean Ping, who claimed the election had been fixed. 

Bongo officially announced in July that he would run for president a third time. 

Gabon's President Ali Bongo at the presidential palace in Libreville on March 2, 2023. © LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP

His powerful Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) holds strong majorities in both houses of parliament, which will also be up for election in the 26 August vote.

The country has not known much democracy since its independence from France on 17 August 1960. 

Throughout the decades, the Bongo family has used various methods to assure its domination over Gabon's politics.

• Gabon celebrates 60 years of independence, mostly under Bongo family rule

Changes to the constitution

In April, the Gabonese parliament voted to amend the constitution to reduce the president's term from seven to five years, and to reduce two rounds of voting to one in presidential elections. 

Sections of the opposition criticised the changes, in particular the scrapping of the second round, which they say facilitates Bongo's re-election. 

"The change makes it much more likely that all the institutions of government power will be taken by Bongo and his party in one single election," according to expert Douglas Yates, a professor of political science at the American Graduate School in Paris.

In July, Prime Minister Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze warned the opposition "not to throw oil on the fire". 

• Gabon's President Bongo to face 18 rivals in re-election bid

In the same month, Gabon's election authority announced that voters in the latest polls must select their presidential and parliamentary candidates from the same political party.

Critics say that will hurt opposition contenders – including Bongo's main challenger, Albert Ondo Ossa – whose parties do not have candidates in both polls. 

Former education minister Ondo Ossa is running for president with the Alternance 2023 opposition coalition, which does not have equivalent candidates in the legislative election.

Polling stations closed

The Interior Ministry has also drastically reduced the numbers of polling stations abroad.

In Europe, only three will open this Saturday – in Paris, Bordeaux and London.

The large Gabonese diaspora in France has lost polling stations in Nantes, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Rennes, Lyon and Marseille.

And in Germany, Canada, Burkina Faso or Ghana, emigrants will not be able to vote at all.

"These Gabonese are deprived of an inalienable right by the government," says the pro-democracy movement Tournons La Page.   

The international civil society network published a report on 21 August documenting numerous human rights violations in Gabon, including arbitrary arrests, bans on protesting and internet shutdowns.

📢SORTIE #RAPPORT : « L'espace #civique en République gabonaise, le paravent d'un arbitraire »
🇬🇦A l'approche des élections au #Gabon, TLP publie un rapport qui documente les violations des droits humains commises dans le pays depuis 2016
🔗Le rapport➡️https://t.co/0cDAmA5tMo pic.twitter.com/aTNlPlDcX7

— Tournons La Page (@TournonsLaPage) August 21, 2023

'Dynastic republic'

Yates calls Gabon a "dynastic republic", comparable to Togo, Equatorial Guinea, Syria, Azerbaijan, North Korea or Turkmenistan.

"In dynastic republics, presidents have concentrated power in their hands and established systems of personal rule. They transmit state power through nepotism to their family and kin," he writes.

But the family's power is also institutionalised through a single ruling party, Yates says, namely the powerful PDG.  

As well as the presidency, Bongo's party has a majority in the national assembly – with 98 of 143 seats – and in the senate, with 46 of 67 seats.

It also exercises control over the courts and local governments.

In the last election, in 2016, the announcement of the results sparked violence in the capital Libreville, but protests were fiercely repressed. 

Supporters of Gabonese opposition leader Jean Ping face security forces blocking the demonstration in Libreville on 31 August 2016. MARCO LONGARI / AFP

The unrest left five dead according to the government and 30 according to the opposition, which says the victims were shot dead by security forces. 

Gabon is considered one of the richest countries in Africa because of its large per capita GDP, due chiefly to its oil revenue and relatively small population of 2.3 million. 

However, a third of the population still live below the poverty threshold, according to the World Bank.

(with AFP)