November 13, 2023

The junta that seized power in Gabon in August said on Monday that it aimed to hold elections in August 2025, two years after the military coup that ousted President Ali Bongo.

The time frame is part of an “indicative” transition to civilian rule that will need to be approved during a national dialogue involving government officials, civil society groups and others.

The junta also said a new constitution would be presented at the end of October 2024 and a referendum on its adoption would be held around November-December 2024.

It said all those dates were subject to possible revision.

Military officers seized power in Gabon on Aug. 30 after the Central African country’s election centre announced Bongo had won a third term as head of state.

Bongo took over in 2009 on the death of his father Omar, who had ruled since 1967.

Opponents say the family did little to share Gabon’s oil and mining wealth with its 2 million people.

The coup in Gabon in August was the eighth in West and Central Africa since 2020.

Similar takeovers in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger were spurred in part by frustrations over authorities’ failure to protect civilians against a spiralling jihadist insurgency that has spread across the Sahel and beyond over the past decade.

All have been widely condemned as regional bodies have pressured the countries’ self-appointed military governments to hold elections within reasonable timeframes.

REUTERS