The military leaders in Gabon, who ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba in August, declared on Monday that elections are scheduled for August 2025. The outlined timetable prioritizes national dialogue before the electoral process.
“August 2025: elections and end of the transition,” stated a spokesperson for the regime on live state TV. This timeline is part of an official but “indicative” transition framework, endorsed by the cabinet but subject to submission to a national conference next year.
The conference, set for April 2024, will include participation from all of the country’s “vital actors.”
Ali Bongo, aged 64, who had been in power in the central African country since 2009, was deposed by military leaders on August 30. This occurred shortly after he was declared the winner in a presidential election, which both the army and the opposition deemed fraudulent.
Gabon’s newly appointed prime minister, Raymond Ndong Sima, has expressed that a two-year transition period before the promised free elections by the country’s new military rulers is a “reasonable objective.”
Ndong Sima was designated as the head of the transitional government by General Brice Oligui Nguema, the leader of the coup d’état against Ali Bongo Ondimba.
