Gabon will hold its presidential, parliamentary, and local elections in August. This is according to the West African nation’s administration on Tuesday.
The “convening of the electoral college for the election of the President of the Republic” along with members of the national assembly and municipal councils was announced in a decree by the Council of Ministers for Saturday, August 26.
Although President Ali Bongo Ondimba has not officially announced if he will stand for re-election, many believe he will.
His dominant Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), which controls both houses of parliament with large majorities, is pressing the president to declare his intention to run for office again.
The now 64-year-old Bongo succeeded his father Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled the oil-rich nation for 41 years, in 2009.
In 2016, the president won re-election by barely 5,500 votes over competitor Jean Ping, who alleged that the poll had been rigged.
In 2018, Bongo had a stroke and spent months rehabilitating, which led the opposition to doubt his suitability to lead the country.
The opposition refers to the Bongo family as a “dynastic power” because the family has been in power for 55 years.
But the opposition has failed to agree on a single candidate for the presidential election, leaving some 15 candidates to announce their intentions to stand.
In April, the Gabonese parliament voted to amend the Constitution and reduce the president’s term from seven to five years.
Sections of the opposition criticized the changes, in particular the end of two rounds of voting, as a means of “facilitating the re-election” of Bongo.
The amendments bring all mandates in line for five years and make all elections single-round ballots again after the last changes to the Constitution in 2018 set up two rounds of voting.