Post-coup ruler in Gabon names leaders of parliament

AFP , Monday 11 Sep 2023

Gabon's new ruler General Brice Oligui Nguema on Monday appointed former opposition leaders and stalwarts of the ousted regime to both houses of parliament.

Gabon s new ruler
Gabon's new ruler General Brice Oligui Nguema. AFP

 

The general, proclaimed president for a transition period, led a bloodless coup d'etat against President Ali Bongo Ondimba on August 30.

Moments before, Bongo, whose family ruled the West African state for 55 years, had been declared winner of a presidential election which the army and opposition declared fraudulent.

Oligui has promised to hand the country back to civilian rule with elections after a transitional period, without setting a date.

He has set up a broad transitional government under new prime minister Raymond Ndong Sima, a Paris-educated economist who served as PM for Bongo from 2012 to 2014 before running against him in the 2016 and 2023 presidential campaigns.

The new Senate will be led by Paulette Missambo, one of Bongo's leading rivals at the election and head of the National Union party, said a decree from Oligui, read out on state television.

Jean-François Ndongou, who held numerous ministerial posts under the Bongo family's decades in power, will be speaker of the transitional National Assembly.

Four vice-presidents -- army officers, politicians who opposed and supported Bongo as well as civil society figures -- were named for each house.

Oligui is also expected to appoint 70 members of the assembly and 50 of the senate.

The new government that Ndong Sima announced on Saturday includes military figures and ex-ministers who served under ousted president Ali Bongo Ondimba, but none of the main opposition 'figures.

Oligui has also promised a new constitution, to be adopted by referendum, and a new electoral code.

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