Gabon’s President Ali Bongo will run for re-election in August, he said on Sunday. He will be bidding to extend his family’s 56-year grip on power in the central African country.
“Because nothing matters more than your success, I am announcing today that I am a candidate,” Bongo told a small crowd of cheering supporters.
Elections are scheduled for August 26, 2023.
Bongo, 64, has been president of the oil-producing nation for two seven-year terms. This is after succeeding his father Omar, who died in 2009 after ruling since 1967. Gabon has no constitutional term limits.
Both of Bongo’s election wins were disputed by the opposition, which said he won fraudulently. His 2016 victory triggered deadly clashes between police and protesters during which the parliament building was gutted by fire.
Bongo’s reelection bid was thrown into doubt when he suffered a stroke in October 2018 and was flown to Morocco for medical treatment. He spent three months abroad but returned shortly after a coup attempt was thwarted in his absence.
About President Ali Bongo
Ali Bongo is the son of Omar Bongo, who was President of Gabon from 1967 until his death in 2009. His mother was 18 years old at the time of his birth. He was conceived 18 months before Albert-Bernard’s marriage and there have been rumors of his being Bongo’s adopted son, a claim that he dismisses.
During his father’s presidency, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1989 to 1991, and represented Bongoville as a Deputy in the National Assembly from 1991 to 1999. He was also Minister of Defense from 1999 to 2009. After his father’s death, he won the 2009 Gabonese presidential election.
According to Wikipedia, Bongo was educated at a private school in Neuilly, France. He then studied law at the Sorbonne. In 2018, he received an honorary doctorate of law degree from Wuhan University in China. In 1977, he released a funk album, A Brand New Man, produced by Charles Bobbit.
