Gabon’s Interior Minister announced on Sunday that preliminary results from Saturday’s presidential election show General Brice Oligui Nguema, who led the August 2023 coup, has won a landslide victory with 90.35% of the vote.
According to the Ministry of Interior, voter turnout reached 70.40% — a significant increase from the 56.65% recorded in the August 2023 elections, during which ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba was controversially declared the winner of a third term. The opposition rejected the results, alleging widespread fraud, and a military coup followed shortly thereafter.
Nguema’s resounding victory strengthens his grip on power 19 months after toppling Bongo, whose family ruled the oil-rich Central African nation for over five decades. Gabon is home to approximately 2.5 million people.
Nguema faced competition from six male candidates and one female candidate. His main challenger was former Prime Minister Alain Claude Bilie By Nze, who served under Ali Bongo’s administration before it was overthrown.
According to the official results, Bilie By Nze, 57, secured just 3.02% of the vote.
During the campaign, Nguema toured the country wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with the slogan “Let’s Build Together,” positioning himself as a reformer determined to dismantle the entrenched corruption of the old regime.
He pledged to diversify Gabon’s oil-dependent economy by boosting agriculture, industry, and tourism in a country where one-third of the population lives in poverty.
Investors closely monitored the election to gauge whether Gabon — which has $3 billion in outstanding international bonds — would take meaningful steps toward restoring democratic legitimacy through a fair electoral process.
According to the World Bank, Gabon’s economy grew by 2.9% in 2024, up from 2.4% in 2023, driven in part by infrastructure projects and exports of key commodities such as oil, manganese, and timber.
Under the new constitution passed in November 2024, Nguema’s election win grants him a seven-year term, renewable once.
