In Gabon, General Brice Oligui Nguema, who overthrew Ali Bongo Ondimba at the end of August, appointed leaders of the ex-opposition as heads of the two chambers of a future transitional Parliament on Monday, September 11, but also former leaders of the regime of the deposed president.
Proclaimed president of the transition on September 4, following his coup d’état of August 30, General Oligui had promised to “return power to civilians” through elections within a deadline that he has not yet clarified, but by setting up provisional institutions comprising “all the active forces of the nation”, from all political sides.
Following the appointment of a transitional government entrusted to a tenor of the ex-opposition, Raymond Ndong Sima, and composed of former leaders of the Ali Bongo regime, opponents, members of civil society and of soldiers, the new strongman of Gabon repeated this sprinkling on Monday in the offices of the future National Assembly and the future transitional Senate, of which he must then appoint, respectively, the 70 and 50 parliamentarians.
On Sunday, the new prime minister declared that he “wished to see the [transition] process completed in twenty-four months so that we could return to elections.”
Reduced curfew
The president of the transitional Senate is Paulette Missambo, one of the main figures of the opposition to Ali Bongo during the 2023 presidential election, president of the National Union (UN), according to a decree from General Oligui read on television public. The president of the Transitional National Assembly is Jean-François Ndongou, several times minister of Ali Bongo, in power for fourteen years, and of his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, who ruled Gabon before him for forty-one years.
Four vice-presidents for each of the two chambers were also appointed, with, in each office, army officers, members of parties or civil society organizations opposed to the Bongo camp and former leaders of his regime who rallied to the power of the military after August 30.
Furthermore, the duration of the curfew established by Mr. Bongo’s government on the evening of the presidential election of August 26 and subsequently maintained by the military, was reduced on Monday in Libreville and its suburbs from 10 p.m. to 6 p.m. hours instead of 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. It is maintained on the rest of the territory, the military announced.
