Oil-rich Gabon will hold presidential, legislative, and local elections on August 26, the West African country announced Tuesday, with President Ali Bongo Ondimba a strong favourite to win against a divided opposition.
Bongo has not yet stated whether he will run for re-election, but he is widely expected to do so.
His powerful Gabonese Democratic Party controls both houses of parliament.
Bongo, 64, succeeded his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled the country for 41 years, in 2009.
In 2016, the president was re-elected by a mere 5,500 votes over rival Jean Ping, who claimed the election was rigged.
Bongo suffered a stroke in 2018 and spent months recovering, prompting the opposition to question his fitness to lead the country.
The Bongo family has ruled the country for the past 55 years and is referred to as a “dynastic power” by the opposition.
However, the opposition has been unable to agree on a single candidate for the presidential election, leaving 15 candidates to declare their intentions to run.
The Gabonese parliament voted in April to amend the constitution, reducing the president’s term from seven to five years.
Sections of the opposition criticised 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 into line at 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.
Gabon is one of the richest countries in Africa in terms of per capita GDP due largely to its oil, timber and manganese, and its relatively small population of 2.3 million.
It is among the leading producers of black gold in sub-Saharan Africa, which represents 38.5 per cent of its GDP, and 70.5 per cent of its export revenues.
In January, President Bongo announced a change of prime minister, appointing Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze to form a government.
Bilie-By-Nze, 55, is a close ally of the president and has held several ministerial jobs since 2006.
The previous premier Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda was appointed vice president, whose role is to “assist” the head of state, though there is no provision to be interim president.
A former defence minister and mayor of the capital Libreville, she became prime minister in July 2020 and was the first woman to head a Gabonese government.