BBC News, Libreville<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Gabon’s military leader Gen 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Some opposition heavyweights who could have posed a serious political challenge were excluded from the race.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Oligui Nguema, 50, 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, St\u00e9phane Germain Iloko and Alain Simplice Boungou\u00e8res.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema is elected [president] by absolute majority of votes cast, with 575,222 votes,” Interior Minister Hermann Immongault announced.<\/p>\n His main challenger, Bilie-by-Nze, received just over 3% of the votes.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n There were complaints of instances of irregularities in the process, however.<\/p>\n At some polling stations the vote was delayed, while some voters on the electoral roll were not able to find where they were meant to cast their ballot.<\/p>\n Bilie-by-Nze said he was particularly concerned by claims that in some places unmarked ballot papers were not kept in a secure location, and that he feared they could be used to stuff ballot boxes.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n 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.<\/p>\n The small oil- and timber-rich central African nation is home to just 2.5 million people. <\/p>\n Despite its resources, about 35% of the population still live below the poverty line of $2 (\u00a31.50) a day. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"AFP](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/add8\/live\/92075fd0-1881-11f0-853a-b54b1ccf8cba.jpg.webp\")
AFP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nMore BBC stories on Gabon:<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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