Gabon coup leader eyes seven-year mandate in presidential vote

Gabon's coup leader Brice Oligui Nguema is looking to cement his grip on power as the oil-producing Central African nation holds a presidential election on Saturday that analysts expect to be a one-sided affair.

Nineteen months after overthrowing President Ali Bongo, whose family ruled Gabon for more than half a century, Nguema, 50, has pitched himself as a change agent cracking down on the corrupt old guard.

In the capital, Libreville, turnout appeared higher than during the 2023 election that precipitated the coup, when Bongo was named winner of a third term in a process the opposition denounced as fraudulent.

Casting his ballot at a school in the city centre, Nguema said the line outside was evidence that "Gabonese have regained confidence in the election", adding that it was "transparent".

Lionel Ekambou, a nurse, woke up early Saturday to vote for Nguema, who has been interim leader since spearheading the coup as an army general.

"His social project meets my expectations and, I am convinced, will contribute to building a better future," the 28-year-old said.

Criss-crossing the country in a baseball cap bearing his "We Build Together" slogan, Nguema vowed to diversify the oil-reliant economy and promote agriculture, industry and tourism in a country where a third of the population lives in poverty.

Yet not everyone believes Nguema, a former aide-de-camp for Ali Bongo's father Omar Bongo, who served as president for more than 40 years until his death in 2009, represents a genuine break with the past.

"He sold us a dream," Libaski Moussavou, 34, told Reuters before casting his ballot, accusing Nguema of surrounding himself with Bongo-era holdovers "whom the Gabonese people decried".

Nguema's main challenger is Alain Claude Bilie By Nze, who was serving as prime minister under Ali Bongo before the August 2023 coup, the eighth in West and Central Africa since 2020.

Nze, 57, voted Saturday in his hometown of Makokou. In a video sent to the media by his campaign, he expressed concern that unused voter cards left at polling stations could be used to stuff ballot boxes.

Nze has tried to distance himself from the Bongo family while challenging Nguema's fitness for the presidency, telling Reuters this week that military men should "go back to their barracks".

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Analysts say Nguema's status as the frontrunner comes from a sense that people were broadly happy with the coup and him being the most visible candidate during the campaign.

Nze's close ties to the old government - which was accused by critics of vote-rigging that it denied - also undermine his warning that Nguema poses a threat to Gabonese democracy, said Florence Bernault, a historian of Central Africa at Sciences Po.

"He doesn't seem to be very well placed to criticise," Bernault said.

Polls are scheduled to close at 6 p.m. (1700 GMT), with the result expected on Sunday. The winner will serve a seven-year term, renewable once.

Nearly 900,000 voters are registered to cast ballots at polling stations across the densely forested and sparsely populated country of around 2.5 million people. An additional 28,000 are registered to vote abroad.

Gabon's economy grew by 2.9% in 2024, up from 2.4% in 2023, driven in part by infrastructure projects and commodities such as oil, manganese and timber, according to the World Bank.

But many voters told Reuters they were mostly concerned about basic services, citing power cuts that plague the capital.

"We talk about it every day," said 40-year-old electrician Herve Regis Ossouami.

"I don't know a Gabonese person who would say they don't want water and electricity."

(Additional reporting by Robbie Corey-Boulet. Editing by Alison Williams and Mark Potter)