The head of Gabon’s transitional government, General Brice Oligui Nguema, on Tuesday, received propositions following a national consultation that included the temporary suspension of political parties.
Oligui, who took power in a coup eight months ago, received almost a thousand propositions following the massive national consultation aimed at preparing a return to civilian government.
Some 680 people chosen by Oligui to represent political parties, civil society, unions, religious orders, and minority groups, spent a month meeting in the capital Libreville as part of the National Inclusive Dialogue (DNI).
At Tuesday’s closing ceremony at the presidential palace, they delivered their findings to the general, who was proclaimed head of state by the army on 30 August 2023 after overthrowing then-president Ali Bongo Ondimba.
The DNI recommends “suspending all legally recognised political parties pending the establishment of new rules governing” their functioning, Murielle Minkoue Mintsa, minister of institutional reform, read out in front of Oligui and hundreds of guests.
Bongo’s Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) came in for harsher treatment, with a recommendation that it be “suspended for three years with immediate effect” and investigations launched against its leaders, who would be barred from standing in the next presidential, legislative and local elections.
The military had accused Bongo’s regime and his extended family of falsifying the results of the presidential election, of poor governance and massive corruption.
Even so, Oligui named several members of the PDG to the DNI while others continue to hold powerful positions in the government.
The DNI’s recommendations are not binding.
Each announcement was greeted with shouts of “Oligui president”, while a proposition that military rule be extended by a year “if necessary” was also loudly applauded.
The presidential election, for which Oligui has not hidden his intention to run, is scheduled for August 2025, at the end of a two-year transition promised by the military.