Gen. Brice Oligui Nguema has won the presidential election in the Central African nation of Gabon, according to provisional results, cementing the military officer’s hold on power after he staged a coup in 2023.
General Nguema won with more than 90 percent of the votes, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday. His main opponent, former Prime Minister Alain Claude Bilie-By-Nze, conceded defeat on Monday.
Gabon’s Constitutional Court is expected to announce official results in the coming days, though opponents and analysts have suggested that the election was geared toward General Nguema’s victory.
General Nguema is now set to govern Gabon for the next seven years, the second leader of a Central African country to win an election in recent years after grabbing power by force.
The election in Gabon, which suffered no major disruptions according to observers, and General Nguema’s victory highlights the return to elected power of men in uniform in West and Central Africa, which has experienced eight coups in the past five years.
Mahamat Déby, the current military leader of Chad, was declared the winner of a presidential contest last year after he seized power there in 2021.
Several other military officials who staged coups in West Africa over the past few years have stayed in power by delaying elections and maintaining lengthy transition rules.
General Nguema, 50, had vowed to relinquish power after a takeover that ended a decades-long political dynasty. But after his administration adopted a new constitution and introduced a new electoral code that allowed military officers to run in elections, he swapped his uniform for jeans and Air Jordans on the campaign trail.
He served as an aide-de-camp to Gabon’s long-ruling autocrat, Omar Bongo, who held power for 41 years. He was then head of the Republican Guard under Mr. Bongo’s son, Ali Bongo Ondimba, who is a cousin of General Nguema’s.
But General Nguema deposed him in 2023 after 14 years, ending one of Africa’s longest eras of family rule.
Voters praised him for that. “The guy overthrew a system that everyone wanted to bring down, and for that alone, the vast majority had to support him,” Sylvie Nguia, an accountant at a telecommunications company, said on Monday in the capital, Libreville.
Gabon is rich in mineral resources and oil, and has one of Africa’s highest incomes per capita. But it remains profoundly unequal and its economy is overly dependent on oil, which accounts for 38 percent of Gabon’s gross domestic product. More than 40 percent of young people in Gabon are unemployed.
The country is also among the world’s most corrupt, according to the watchdog Transparency International — a trend that preceded General Nguema’s military takeover.
General Nguema has vowed to break away from Gabon’s corrupt political system, even though critics point out that he had long been part of it.
With all political parties suspended, every candidate, including General Nguema, ran on independent platforms. But General Nguema had the state funds to finance his campaign, opponents said.
“If he won, it’s because he used state equipment, helicopters, cars, even the military,” said Yannick Mbina, a taxi driver in the Libreville area who said he had voted for Mr. Bilie-By-Nze.
“I’m waiting to see what people will gain with him,” he added. “They’ve chosen to continue with the Bongo system.”
Even as he conceded defeat, Mr. Bilie-By-Nze said on Monday that the election had been “a farce” and complained of “Soviet-style results.”
“Fairness was undermined by the imbalance of resources — with one candidate campaigning at the taxpayers’ expense while others had to rely on their personal means,” he said.
Analysts say General Nguema fashioned the election so it could only benefit him. The constitutional reform that allowed him to run for office extended presidential terms to seven years and removed the role of the prime minister.
The new electoral code also prevented a prominent opponent from running by imposing an age limit of 70 years for any candidate.
Other observers said that General Nguema had mainly benefited from the Gabonese people’s disenchantment with decades of misrule. “The people had only one wish, which was to give power to the men in uniform so something might finally come out of Gabon,” said Fred Kapabi, an independent political analyst in Libreville.
On Sunday, after the provisional results were announced, General Nguema said the returns left no doubt over who had won.
“I am a captain who knows how to bring a ship to a safe port,” he said. “You will see how the country is going to take off.”
Yann Leyimangoye contributed reporting from Libreville, Gabon.
